Much like the early years of the AIDS epidemic, leprosy had
created a fear of the unknown and brought out the worst of human
nature. Supported by Biblical injunctions (like the ones that
supported slavery), bigots would hunt down and exile those with
leprosy as if they were sin incarnate instead of a person
infected with a disease. Image isolating for life someone with
migraines merely for having migraines -- there was no court of
appeals, just a prison for life because they were ill.
America's role in this inhumane madness came after the American
occupation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1893. The island of
Molokai was already the site for exiled lepers on an isolated
sliver of land for nearly three decades. American policy was one
of neglect and of allowing "The Colony" to exist until 1969 -- a
quarter century after safe medical treatment was devised.
The history of "The Colony" on Molokai will make the reader
angry and ashamed of how the lepers were condemned, exiled, cut
off from the world as if they were subhuman. Mr. Tayman
graphically describes the cost that the lepers paid in being
ostracized by society and the painful suffering endured by them
with minimal medical care, shelter and food. James Michener
described the leper colony in his sprawling historical epic
novel "Hawaii"-1959. "The Colony" is not an easy book to read
but it is a book worth reading. |
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