Galveston is a Gem

To get to Galveston from Houston you take I-45. The scenery is bleak. There are miles and miles of old oil fields, a cemetery, swamps, and nothing else really. Except that this stretch of land that Highway 45 cuts through is called “The Killing Fields”. Starting in the 1970s up to 30 girls and women have been found murdered along this stretch of highway that runs for 50 miles. Many of them were young teenagers, the exact age of Maureen I realize, as we barrel down the lonely highway

Play Dead

Our Uber driver was not the talkative type. So we listened to melodious strains as we rode along the road to Galveston through real estate that appeals to psychopathic serial killers. I can see their point. Lots of room out there to pick a good spot. Although, it would be hell on earth for a woman to have her car break down at night, out there, before cell phones. I think I would just lock it up, crawl into the back seat, and try to get some sleep until the sun comes up. If anybody came by with a flashlight or knocked on the window, I would just pretend I was already dead.

Photo by Nick Linnen on Unsplash

History Alert! If more than a few lines of history in a travel blog irritate you, please skip the next two paragraphs.

The original Killing Fields are in Cambodia.

They are scattered all over the country, but the biggest one lies outside Phnom Penh, the capital. Communists killed approximately 1.38 million people between 1975 and 1979. Why? Because it had been done before. They were following a blueprint laid out for them by other communist regimes like Stalin’s collectivization of Ukrainian farmers in the 30s where 4 million died and Chinese communist dictator Mao’s Great Leap Forward in the 1950s where 45 million died in 4 years.

The Khmer Rouge (literally Red Cambodia) set out to empty the cities and towns and put people to work, as unpaid laborers, in the rice fields and on the farms. Employing mostly teenagers, they actually managed to do this in less than a week. Truly shocking. Many died during the forced marches and the aftermath. The 20th century may have been one of the bloodiest centuries in history thanks to communism.

A Schoolteacher No Less

And all the while no one knew who was in charge. A small group of sneaky communist party leaders remained in hiding. It took more than a year for the world to find out that Pol Pot, the man leading the genocide of his own people, was actually a schoolteacher named Saloth Sar. In the first 6 months of communist takeover money and private property were abolished.

Schools, hospitals, stores, offices, and monasteries were closed. Nothing was published; no one could travel without permission; and everyone was ordered to wear peasant work clothes. As in Mao Zedong’s China, the poorest peasants were favored at everyone else’s expense.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Cambodia/Tai-and-Vietnamese-hegemony

UNESCO Heritage Site, Right?

Wrong. Although, one would think that the worldly and sophisticated people at UNESCO would include The Killing Fields in their portfolio of destinations that have profoundly impacted the human race. They included Auschwitz but not the horror of what happened in Cambodia. Why? This should highlight the need to remember one thing: Don’t let other people tell you what is important and what is not. You decide for yourself what is significant and worth preserving.