Jiddu Krishnamurti: A Reminder

During this lecture, or rather conversation, Jiddu Krishnamurti was 90 years old.  He quickly admonishes the audience not to applaud him.  The Year was 1985, the first night of a two-night speaking engagement in Washington DC.  They were the Reagan years and I was only 19 years old.  The heart beat of our nation was concerned with Communism, nuclear war, and we felt, at the time, that we were not crazy enough to push the button to destroy the earth.  The greatest fear was the cold war with Russia. 

It was still the "spy-versus-spy" days and we had felt, with incredible certainty that we were the ones wearing the "white" hats.  We were good, loved peace and were not in the business of creating war.  We had fought for those who could not speak. 

That was our self perception.  What is our concern?  What is our desire?  There is a saying that where your heart is, there lies your treasure.

As I think about the nature of the days, where we tried not to think about the threat of living under a nation where weapons were pointed at each other, and we tried to understand, as young people, how our parents generation had allowed the bomb contest to grow to such insanity.  At the time we had an inventory that could have destroyed the world several times over, and that was just OUR inventory. 

Like most Americans, I didn't pay attention to the Iran-Contra scandal.  It was "their" problem and we didn't want any part of it.  However, the war in Afghanistan had resulted in the bankruptcy of the former Soviet Union.  It also resulted in the collapse of the Berlin Wall.  It resulted in nuclear draw-down, that I had thought was a miracle.

The world came together and watched with tears as the wall came down and yet, the old Europe was still terrified of a "unified" Germany instead of hoping for a unified world.

At the time, I had thought to myself that I actually could have a family, during the age of one nation pointing weapons at another in some sort of Mexican stand-off, I was not about to bring a child into this drama.

Unfortunately, the drumbeat of war began and continues since 2 August 1990.  When one group tries to dominate another group to do its will, we have terms that have changed our language and our mentality.  To objectify humanity has crippled our hearts and consciousness with bitter seeds of hate and revenge.

Not all are as such, but individually and collectively; we are responsible for the world we want to see reflected in each other.  Is peace really so controversial?   Is freedom without a real meaning when we use the freedom to inflict control over each other.  To rule each other?  Over each other?  To treat each other like cattle?  Our competitive spirit serves not to better each other, but to destroy each other.  What is this carrot we are chasing?  A plaque?  A bit of recognition? 

For a moment, consider what is driving you in this life.  Consider your motivation.  Is it to be free from need, just to preserve your mortal body for as long as possible because life is so much more preferable to death? 

How much more is learned when we collaborate and share with each other instead of chasing little slips of green paper that we exchange with each other for wants more than needs.  So, perhaps we need to realign our thinking.  To face our fears of each other.  To realize this is not an ugly world, but one that has an enormous amount of potential instead of just passively and blindly accepting that we "have to" be divided through beliefs, race, creed, culture, language or nationality. 

Ponder carefully...why are we afraid of peace?  What wouldn't be needed anymore?  What could that energy be put into.  We live.  We die.  The next generations come and the ancestors hope their knowledge and experience is passed down. 

No matter what is feared, which is the unknown; have the courage to make the unknown...the known. What follows is the second night of his dialogue in Washington DC. If we can ever hope to have peace within the world, we must restore the intention of the word.

Poetic License

Gaza Shield

While cleaning out my email, I received a request to enter a global poetry contest through the "World Poetry Movement".   Sometimes you just go with it and let the words flow and get out of the way.  That is movement.  Since this is a "World" emphasized "Contest", I placed special emphasis on the world.  The real movement comes from within your heart and getting honest about what we want to change.  These words do not apply to a specific nation and yet they apply to all of us when we do nothing when we can do something.  Empower your voice against the apathy of the world in whatever medium you choose to use.  I remembered the movie "Gaza Shield", a short movie about how a video game was used to send a response to an Israeli on-line video game that promoted the killing of Palestinians.  Well, in that same spirit, we have to know when to call out our leadership in whatever nation we may reside in...because we all know, it's not OK.

Oh, and a note about the "Contest".  The goal for me isn't about winning anything...it's about the message and I hope that you pass it on.

Picture: Güven Mendi

Wall of Words

Crushing bones of war kissed with words of peace
Sounds of bombs exploding in the air
as the aid packages turn the food into blood
River run dry as the oil flows
another swollen dark belly
with skeletal frames crawl in the dirt
Throwing money at problems
leaving ill fated leadership to cut up the pie
sinking another immunization into a frail arm
with tongues swollen for thirst
and eyes that have only been blackened
by a heartless earth, laying barren and dry
soaking up the lifeblood of a native soul
no concern for the words,
no concern for the wishes
only want something on the dishes
No threads to pull together
No crops to sow
Just another body to bury with their plastic smiles
as long as its not their child but mine
The shadows of aid in a wasteland
with flowers in one hand and bullets in another
Is my skin not the right color?
Are my words understandable?
Would you have me hate my mother for giving me life?
Would you have my kill my brother just for a slice?
For a tank of gas...I cannot breathe.
For a diamond bracelet...the blood flows.
For your life, you demand my life.
For your peace, you give me war.
Behind the smile is a wall of words.

While I Still have Freedom of Speech, Let Me Tell You a Story...

Once Upon A Time...

I was 14 years old (young) and I was inspired by a teacher.  This was many years ago, but this teacher was a history teacher.  I adored him because I felt like he gave me a passion for humanity by sharing the story of the Jewish people.  I learned a new word, Holocaust.  I learned about genocide, and what I also learned was about the role our country played in liberating the Jewish people.  I wept over the 6 million people, for at last, I found a story I felt I could relate to.  

"Never Again" was my passion and it inspired me to join the Air Force at the age of 21.  

I was not aware of the whole story.  I didn't know anything about Zionism, but I felt the passion to be protective of the legacy.  These people had known such total pain.  They had seen their families killed, had their property stolen, and when liberated, they had nothing to go back to.  I sought out concentration camp survivors, befriended them, heard their stories...and found one problem.  They still had an incredible amount of hate.  They never could forgive.  It was them against the world and they lived in fear of people.    I wrestled with points of forgiveness within my own life.  I knew what it was like, as many people in this world have experienced, many forms of pain, suffering and abuses.

Forgiveness?  NEVER!

That is what I identified with.  I understand both.  I understand what it is to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it.  I understand what it is not to forgive.  I will say that I suffered the most by not forgiving.  It was by not forgiving that I was never able to forget.  It was by not forgiving that I had kept my own hatred alive.  It was by not forgiving that I kept talking about my own pain and the pain of others.  I had kept ripping those wounds open over and over again.  It had made me an unpleasant person.  It had made me an unforgiving person, demanding impossible levels of perfection from all who were in my life.  

I went through my own path in personal areas of my life to let go of the pain so my deep wounds could at last heal in my life.  I cried easily because I finally was able to cry.  I finally was able to laugh.  I finally was able to smile.  I was finally able to see because my thinking had changed.  It wasn't distorted by hatred and violence.

I began to question what we were doing.  I began to see a darker picture of the lies that had been pushed on the American people, the world, the UN, and other nations saw through the lies that Americans so readily believe, because it IS incomprehensible that we would not be able to trust our government.  A government that professed freedom (but there is none), liberty (but there is none), and the pursuit of happiness (but at least we have it in writing).  

What I have provided are three messages that I would like people to share and understand.  These three messages alone did not change my mind about the State of Israel.  No, far from it.  I started following the information by following history and the incomprehensible question that led me on this journey.  I had to find out one answer.  Like with any crime, you must have a motive.

Nagging away was the following question.  What transformed a nation to rise up against a minority group?  What caused these people to rise up and slaughter them?  I had gone to West Germany as a youth instead of Israel.  I looked at the Germans and could not comprehend what I saw.  I saw a free and open society, many races, many differences and a very beautiful culture.  They were a prosperous people, hard working, strong families, and a powerful belief in their society.  Was it Patriotism alone that killed the Jews in foreign soils?  

How do you ask a nation, "Why did you kill these people?"  

I did ask the question.  Several times I asked the question.  I received many responses.  There were some that still hated the Jews.  There were some that were not able to respond.  "It was the thing to do at the time."  or "It was safe to hate them."  but the answer that summed it up the best, "It was like a river of hatred that swept us all in.  It was socially acceptable to hate them, because everyone hated them.  It was no loss to hate them because they hated us."

Some of the answers stunned me.  I didn't comprehend this level of hatred.  

One thing that stunned me years later, was this group of people that were representative of my years of service, to be a 'champion' of human rights through my military service, to prevent genocide and serve for humanitarian missions was the content of my heart.  I could find reasons to continue serving.  Albania, Bosnia, Serbia...and the Kurdish minorities who were abused by the Iraqi Republican Guard...I heard and watched their cried...that is up until Rwanda and Brunhdi.  We did not go in because they were black.  We could have saved 20 percent of their populations.  We could have gone in when the UN pulled out.

We did nothing and I wept when I was in Germany.    It would be 15 years later, when I would meet the children of hell who survived and became students of mine in China.  I would find fresh tears on my face, not because of what they went through, but of the lessons of forgiveness they continue to teach the world.

I would also meet a Kurdish student who thanked me for my service because of what his people suffered under the Saddam regime.  Still, I was not convinced.  Iraq had turned into a war for oil and not so much about the atrosicities committed against the Iraqis and Kurds.

Hatred.  Genocide.  These two powerful words are bolstered with a third, Holocaust.  

I have faced these words, vowing always to be on the side of good.  On the side of humanity.  That to me, was paramount.  That was my oath, upon the altar of my heart.  Without any doubt, or moment of mental reservation would I stand up for people that I felt needed a voice.  

That is my "Never Again".  Never again to fuel the fires of hatred.  However, there is another truth that must surface.  Hurt people often abuse others.  Many abusers, murderers, rapists were also victimized.  

Within the last few years, I have finally been able to see and willing to look at a place called "Palestine".   I immediately would tune out anything that had to do with Israel because of the images of the Holocaust.  It was as if it was a form of magic had been used to keep me blind.  

What ever I thought I had known about Palestine, was hugely distorted.  

The nation of Israel had USED the Holocaust to shield their actions against the Palestinians.  I learned from the Jewish people, from soldiers, from the stories and images of the killed and wounded.  I began to finally see what many Americans were kept from seeing.  

These stories are about humanity.  Humanity is for all.  No one race is more protected than another, for evil is easy to see.  When a woman is beaten and a child ripped from her arms.  When a family is forced out of their own home at machine gun point.  When people are killed for standing up for their families, their homes and for their community...

it is simple.

It is inhumane.  

If you are loyal to Israel, as I was, take a real look at what is being done, using American funding.  We have become the evil we have feared by supporting the persecution of the Palestinians.  The Palestinians have been occupied, slaughtered and displaced from their own nation.  No matter what your beliefs are, your heart should reveal that this is as inhumane.

Before the nation of Israel was established, without the consent of Palestine,  Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in peace together.  

There hasn't been a lasting peace since 1946.  I have heard from Palestinians who have told me, "I will never leave my homeland."  They have lived under the shadow of death their entire lives.  Isn't it time for the key of peace to be given out? 

Which comes from understanding that most of our beliefs are embedded along the way.  If we have our media, governments and families shape our beliefs, it is for their purposes and not for us to discover our own.

Years later, I had found my history teacher.  I had asked him about Zionism.  He had said, "There is no such thing as Zionism."  My heart sank.  I knew right then and there that he had withheld the truth, which is the same as lying.   A person I had held up with such high regard, was not even to marry the woman he had loved because their religions were different.  He had begged me to see Israel one day in my travels.


Instead, I saw Palestine.  I saw the truth of how these people were treated, with hatred instead of love.

Believe nothing, ever, because believing is not knowing.  

Know by learning and teaching yourself along the way.

Namaste, my friends.

The Sacrifice

Greetings my friends.  I have returned to my broken battered friend, America.  I had heard all of the stories about body cavities searches, scanners and law suits.  I braced myself as I boarded my flight from Nanjing, China to begin my journey in total peace.  I wondered what I was going to face as I flew in semi turbulent air, but even my past flight anxiety evaporated.  If I was going to make it to America or not, well, it was all out of my control.  I let the pilots do their job, and I simply did mine.  I finally let go of trying to control everything and spoke to others along the journey.  I went through security and saw all of the agents, weary, they did their jobs, but all that I had heard seemed to be a huge myth as I walked through JFK.  I was back in America.  However, I seemed to be looking for the land of the free.  Were people still pursuing life, liberty and happiness?  Right now, I see what appears like sacrificial lambs.  When I left the University I noticed a new object that was installed,  it looks like a sacrifice altar set up on the new campus.

Maybe it was an altar, acknowledging the sacrifices of old wars, however I was hoping that it was not an altar asking for new blood.  We all have shed enough blood.  I thought of all of the stories I had been told along the way from people from all over the world.  I have asked many to share their stories for the purpose of promoting not peace, but love and understanding.  I have been incredibly flawed along my journey,  You can look back throughout my blog.  I am human and make mistakes, but I also don't want to talk down or up to people.  I want as many people as possible to be able to read and understand and share the message of this simple page.  We don't have to have war to be at peace.  We can start by learning how to love people and to stop being so self-centered.

As I came in to the United States, I would smile at people and I saw their fear in their eyes, coupled with furrowed brows and looks of pain.  We have done a good job of being divided.  We sacrifice much for those whom we love; our friends, family, countries, and religions.  The things we believe in.  The things we love.  I want to use this to promote peace and love to all people.  For the people I don't know.  For the countries who are not my homeland.  In short, for strangers.  As I myself, have been a stranger in strange lands doing impossible things.  Extending hands of compassion to those I have never met before.

So in the future I am going to share stories from all that I have come to understand and know.  We all have a story.  There is no right way or wrong way.  However, I think it is time to realize that we need to stop letting others use our beliefs against us.  To stop letting others take our love and turning it into hate.  I walked out their in the world and I learned to listen to all over you.  I have shaken your hands, smiled with you, cried with you, and shared my life with you.

We all have been torn up enough.  I stopped being afraid of all of you.  I learned how to love you as you all are.  You shared your hearts, dreams and minds with me.  Now, some of my friends are going to share their lives with you.  We have all cast stones at each other, it is time to end the competitions, comparisons, and see we all can build bridges to each other.

There is no more blood that needs to be shed.  There is nothing to forgive.  You are all my friends and I accept you just as you are even if you can't accept me.  You aren't required to.  I am required to accept you if I want to be at peace.  We sacrifice only our ego, our self-interest in order to be the change we want to see in others.

I am willing to do that.  I have no control over if you are not willing to do that.  None whatsoever.  It's your choice.

A Public Service Announcement From The Youth of the World

Forgive me, I am a woman.  Forgive me, I am a bit naive.  Forgive me, I ask a lot of questions without the need to deceive.  I just wanted to ask all of you out there, perhaps you are in the choir, but for those of you who sing a long to this song...this is kind of directed to those who don't see eye-to-eye with us.  I want to ask how has peace ever come from war?  I can't think of a necessary war, not really.  Most of the wars would or could not have happened if they went unfunded within the last 100 years.  How much is life worth?  How much could be done if we allocated our resources towards getting ourselves off of oil?  Maybe that is what the oil-rich countries are afraid of.  That we would not need them, that we would use less of them and perhaps collaborate more towards a positive future.

If we learned to be self reliant instead of dependent, think of all of the things we could get done and how exciting that might be to build and create with each other instead of having enterprises emphasizing our differences, and though they are bad things.  Really, do we want everyone to be the same?  With the same thoughts, the same beliefs, the same everything when we need our differences...now more than ever.

So dark, the media in the west seems to appear.  Fights for money and not for life.  Fights over pensions, taxes, wages...between class systems that are driven by one tool.  A tool that has been given life to take away or add to our lives.  A thing has been given power over the breathing people who have a pulse and don't realize how important being an individual is.  A tool that is fought over instead of shared.  A thing that rules even the elite and moneyed classes.  How far we have to go that we would given intelligence to a hammer and not retain any wisdom.  A thing that has taken lives to pay others to take lives not because war is noble, but because it is paid for.

That we give so little thought to the youth of this age who remind us that "Peace is OURS...IF we want it."  That would mean for all of us.  Revenge?  What good is it?  Revenge can only come back time and time again for it is never satisfied. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.  Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.  (Emerson)

When will we rise up out of the dark ages and stop our blood sacrifices to our gods?  Be those gods of money, material, profits and religion or power, take down those sacrifice pits.  Blood spilled for nothing.  Wasted lives that we have no concept of how rare and precious each life is.  YOU were a ONE in a 300,000 Billion shot (Amram Scheinfeld)!  Each life is beyond calculation as far as potential impact.  So why are we told we have to BE like each other?  Oh what opportunities we miss when we fail to see and realize we all are needed.

So on this beautiful day, as I looked at the sunrise and noticed people around me.  Having their own thoughts, dreams and duties I thought of these words by Emerson, and this portion of an essay called, "Self Reliance".  I am glad he wrote them in a time where we were not so politically correct. 

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;

that he must take himself

for better

for worse

as his portion, that through the wide universe is full of good

no kernal of nourishing can come to him,

but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

The power which resides in him is new in nature,

and none but he knows what that is which he can do,

nor does he know until he has tried.

Emerson

Simply put, YOU want what exactly you want for yourself.  It takes just one to stop repeating messages of hate and revenge.  To be able to see and be who you are and not be a 'joiner'.  You can be a third rate copy of your idols or a first rate original...you.  Imitation is not flattery.  It steals from everything you could be.  

This world needs you, the authentic version now more than ever.  You have to accept yourself and quite trying to be what you believe others want you to be.  Seek yourself and you will find where your heart is.  I think if people really looked, they would find that the universe IS good, and if we realized that would we need to go to war with anyone?  What do you want?  Why waste the shot we have been given to be here.  300,000 Billion to One...what odds for each one of us!

In the Garden of War and Peace

Before Veteran's Day approaches, I thought I would ask instead of celebrating wars and the rumors of wars, or the stories of war heroes, what if we forgot our reasons for war for a moment?   I think I found a wonderful reason to forget them all. It is through remembering them, often hatred persists. We never seem to go forward, only told that we are supposed to hate our enemies and fight everyone and soon we forget why we are all fighting to begin with. There are wars that have lasted centuries, and some, since the beginning of time. Some in the name of peace. Some in the name of revenge. Some for no apparent reason at all, except to profit from it or to secure seats of power.
I have been to many war museums that proudly displayed their conquests over other nations. To record the past battles and victories along the way. Often these museums display the conquered with war trophies and stories that go along with them. However, hidden away, in a corner garden, I found the relics of warfare here. With nature growing all around it. Letting all of it go into the past, with the stories buried in the earth.
It seems ironic find such a peaceful setting. A conflict of seeing such beauty with the cannons now silent and still after taking so many lives along the way. I saw the wisdom of the silent weapons. Neither elevated for patriotic purposes or to be used to rub salt in the wounds of those who may have been defeated. Silent cannons raised and not aimed at another, but raised in a silent disuse.
Instead, they are a dark reminder of how stones were launched against each other. This is no fear of them ever being used again against another life.
As I looked at the inscriptions and saw how other nations may have interloped with this one in the past for their own financial gains, I thought this age, where others try to gain from those who seem less fortune along the way.
Proudly silent they remain in a garden not as a symbol of war, but of what peace looks like. A nation that celebrates peace should be as such and never proudly display weapons of warfare. With silent cannons and birds making their nests in the trees above them.

We are Many - Only the Unloved Hate

In memory of SSG Lilian Clemons.  For your family, and for your son who looked me in the eyes and asked me if your death was right.  For which I found no words to respond truthfully, so I went to find the truth.  We can only bring about peace by being peace and not fighting for it.  You didn't die in vain, you changed my life.

"And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am"  

-Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls

Alone, I am just one.  Together, we are the voices of many.  We outnumber them.

Search for hope...

I didn't think about how significant this work of art by a group of elementary school children would be...this massive rendering by small hands as a huge display of what is at risk right now in Korea. The potential for the loss of innocence...but it also is a picture of hopes and dreams. Brightly coloured dreams of rainbows, flowers, and images of love.

I am reminded, once again, that I am in the colourful city of hope. Daegu. Right now there is a lot of hopes that are being challenged with a world situation that is becoming harder and harder to push to the back of my mind. In a way I understand when I follow the timeline of world events how the North has stood up to the rest of the world.

Having lived here since January, you just don't challenge a Korean's reputation or honor. They will die defending it. Being held accountable for one's actions is akin to being treated like a child. They will resent you for it. This culture is also dominated by men. Now many women will reach positions of leadership or true equality. The Koreas...are not the United States, they are not westernized in their culture or thought processes.

For diplomacy to work, you must understand the culture and give the North a way to save face. If the Western world does not, I am wondering, deeply, if I am documenting the final months of the South's existence.

I have resisted greatly the urge to comment on the situation . Not wanting to draw attention to it, but I feel compelled to make the following points. Being right is overrated. We know what the North is doing is akin to suicide. However, what the West needs to know is that suicide is very much a part of this cultures in the Koreas. Their pride and reputation is very important to them. Anything that would bring shame to them, well, as we saw with the suicide of the former president of South Korea, this nation responded with intense mourning and praise in the east. He died to save his family. He died to stop an investigation. It was viewed as a death of honor.

The North is under incredible economic strain. Recently the border towns that have North Korean workers are asking for wages to be increased for them to four times their present salaries. What people may not realize is that publicly North Korea will not care about economic sanctions, but privately it is an incredible struggle. With China being the source of most of their material resources. They are a nation under siege and backed into a corner. They don't know how to ask for help. So now, they do what they have been doing...lashing out and vowing to weaponize their resources.

There is still time to avert this holocaust. You have a leader that wants to save face. He is a paranoid leader, who has run his country under a cult of personality. Like Jim Jones, Kim Jong il will lead his followers to death. Only this time he is making one silver bullet looking for any reason to pull the trigger. With his health in question over the recent years, I don't think a potentially dying man is too concerned about how he gets what he wants.

We can some how hope that the right solution comes...and quickly.

The peaceful grounds of the Donghwasa Temple

As I continue my exploration of Donghwasa Temple, I finally observed my first priest walking along the Temple living area while the tourists are invading this quiet and serene place. They seemed to be in hiding while the afternoon was filled with the curiosity seekers (such as myself) were there to appreciate the scenes. The support of this temple comes largely through tourism. I have to admit, that I did feel a sense of incredible peace while walking these grounds. I had to laugh when my friend, Monica asked me if I believed in 'myths'. It was her choice of words for the term of 'religion' that I found telling. I couldn't help but laugh, because really religion is to me a series of mythologies that different cultures embrace to keep their societies in tact, that provide a sense of order.

Yet, this is not like a lot of churches, this is a living breathing society that shuts out the rest of the world...though through need, they have opened their doors to allow the intrusion of tourism on their grounds.

I found the living quarters had special significance, where some were based on status (which is highly regarded), others were dedicated for special purposes or needs. One set of quarters where dedicated for women who were seeking to enhance their fertility. Others, for other maladies or conditions to seek remedies for through prayer and meditation.

Yet, the schedule of a temple stay is not for those who just simply want to find a place to sleep and wander around. The day starts at 3am, with of course prayer and meditation with the priests. However, if you are not into the religious aspect, it is still just a nice place to come and simply be an observer of their culture.

After all, when you are in a city with the population in the millions...it is just nice to escape from the madness at times.

Thoughts about the situation in Korea...

As I was up in Seoul, going about my business and trying to meet with some friends (ah that is another story)...life seems to be oddly normal considering the political firestorm that is going on between North and South Korea. The media has stated that we are on the brink of war. Yes, there is a cold war feeling that is ever present.

However, as we do know, there are no winners in using that kind of option...of course you all know what I am talking about...something we don't want to even contemplate...that thought of course is anything having to do with the use of nuclear weapons. For decades the US and the USSR (now Russia) lived with the 'red button' and the world had great hopes when the wall fell. The hope of all Koreans...whether they are in the North or in the South...is that one day they will be unified.

There is even a temple, Buinsa Temple, that is dedicated for prayer for unification of Korea. Unification of the North and the South is very much a part of the fabric of this culture, as it was in Germany...and having been there when they were two separate states, I can tell you that the feelings in this present time echo the past.

However, as I walked around the streets of Seoul on Saturday night, the youth were trolling the streets...revelling in their youth (as young people do)...and there was no thought of what the world leaders were doing. Perhaps in search of a good Soju bar, or a chance connection...or perhaps this is simply the calm before the storm. Even today in Daegu...there is not much talk of war. Though the world talks of it, through the media, and politicians...the everyman of the street is calmly going about the day doing what they do.

The consequences of even thinking of what a war would do to this peninsula...well it would devastate both sides. Though I am starting to notice things like how gas masks are located by the elevators of the building I work in. The remaining bits of my past life, in another world, where I realize the world will never be quite the safe place I would love it to be...but you can't be fearful of living. You just have to go out there...after all it isn't how you die...it is how you live your life...and I have never been comfortable with sitting in a corner.

Life in South Korea...Life anywhere...is risk....there is no such thing as security...my dear friends...that is all a painful illusion.

Some risks are just more visible than others...

Obama's Victory Speech in Chicago, Illinois

Today we see the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. Today we witness history. We have a long way to go to restore ourselves in the international community, to restore all that has been lost to find a better way. I am proud of how far the United States has come. Still, we have to have more than the desire, we have to take action and realize it will not just be handed to us.

On this day, we finally see what it means to believe again. Change will not be easy, it will be a reaching out to each other for what really does matter is the value of each other. This is a new era, an era that isn't about the material...but an era that wakes us up to the hope that we see when we look at each other with new eyes.

People matter. And though I am here in South Korea, I could not be happier with the direction I see my home country taking. Let there be peace. Let there be hope. Let there be a new beginning.