Hunted Like Animals

Tonight was not unlike any other Tuesday night, Save for the weather being a little crisper and hundreds of Asian people boarding my Inbound train at Meadowview and Florin Station's.

I drive the same schedule 5 days a week, which allows me to become friendly with a few passengers and familiar with the ebb and flow of passenger oddities such as when the McClatchy kids get out of school and cause a ruckus & when people head for Roseville after putting in 8 hours at the Secretary of States Office.

Hundreds of Asian people tossed into the Tuesday mix was weird. But this Tuesday twist was also awesome. What was awesome about this group was the expansive generational reach.

Great Grandparents, grandparents, mothers, fathers, baby's, teenagers and children of all ages waited patiently and fumbled with the ticket machines. One could surmise that this was the first time they had ever used Regional Transit. It brought a smile to my face, and I hoped for a stress & thuggery free ride into Downtown..........It was truly promising & encouraging to see all these people getting on the train for a ride.

But why I wondered?

At City College, I lowered my ramp for the Tuesday regulars and scanned the front half of the seats for someone in the group that I could strike up a conversation with to find out what event or rally or whatever everyone was headed to.

I found her.

She simply replied "Hunted Like Animals".



The Crest Theater was screening the Rebecca Sommer film called "Hunted Like Animals", a documentary film chronicling the ongoing genocide of Hmong People in the jungles of Laos.

Here is a synopsis of the Documentary-

Hunted Like Animals is an eye-opening documentary about an ongoing, but unknown, genocide — against the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. Coerced into joining the CIA’s anti-communist efforts during the Viet Nam war, this ethnic minority became a Secret Army. When the U.S. pulled out of Southeast Asia in 1975 and the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists, the Hmong became targets of retaliation and persecution. Hundreds of thousands fled the country; others ran to remote mountainous regions of Laos. Over thirty years and two generations later, the Hmong in hiding are still mercilessly hunted, attacked, raped, tortured and killed by the military. Since 2004, the crackdown has intensified and those who can escape seek refuge in Thailand. The traumatized refugees have not been promised protection or help. Instead, they are threatened with deportation back to Laos, the very place from which they barely escaped. In this documentary, the refugees speak for the estimated 20,000 voiceless people still trapped in the jungle, surrounded by Lao and Vietnamese soldiers — and hunted like animals.

I remember reading about this film, but I never really gave it another thought.

As we speak, I am searching the web for a venue to see this film.

When I score tickets to this Documentary, I promise to take public transit to and from.

Promise...