General Vang Pou Analysis

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What does every American need to know today? Scratch that. What should every American need to know today? Hence, in today’s society, the standard language of “English” is translucent from the high-so proper English and to the streets of slang. Forget being monolingual, when speaking proper English intertwine with slang, one is already bilingual. As for myself, you can say I, myself is trilingual—from Hmong, English, to the slang. However, my roots convey a different story. Have you heard of my story? Have you heard about the Secret War in Laos? Have you heard of General Vang Pao? Known as a time of grievance, a time of suffering for my people, the Hmong community. Our history conveys the struggles we have faced in times of history that was …show more content…

As it is a “secrete” war that held countless lives, and created something to be learned from. Hence, we can learn and grow from historical events to prevent future outburst of repeating history. So, what should every American need to know today? To repent on being culturally aware of our history, though E.D. Hirsch’s list does not imply the words of the Secret War nor the General’s name as signified as a cultural literacy of a set of words Americans should “already” know. We can defy this set of rules because we should conclude—the Secret War and General Vang Pao—the history behind this word and name is equally important to other historical wars and names in past centuries. Inedibility, the Secret War was a time that still ponders in the hearts of the Hmong community, “…described them as a tiny force of desperate people clinging to the hope that the CIA would come back to rescue them (Thompson),” describes George. The Hmong community did hope, and still is hoping. As this is something that is worth to be mentioned, and culturally literate for a well-rounded individual to learn something about our history—the Hmong community, the Secret War, and General Vang Pao. It’s something culturally literate we should connect to historically, and it’s something that we should be told—the