We do not participate in the movement for Korea's democracy and reunification merely out of patriotic longing or a burst of nationalism. We are immigrants in the United States, the epicenter of capitalism, seeking to lay our roots here for generations to come. A society built on individualistic values may lead us to into forgetting about our own identity as Korean Americans, dismiss our neighbors and society in general - even our parents and siblings. We may be drawn to worry solely for our own well being and personal success. To do so will weaken our human spirit and prevent us from laying our roots in this land and passing on a prosperous future for our children.
Yoon Han Bong
05-18-2008
I first met my "sunbaenim," (senior brother) Yoon Han Bong in May of 1983, when I was a foreign graduate student in New York. I met him with a group of students concerned about the path of our homeland. We were urban and full of intellectual pretentiousness; we thought we would meet a guy in a suit, with a refined speech. When he walked in, he did not look like what we expected at all... he resembled a handyman idling around Seoul's Union Station, with rugged hands. I thought: "this can't be him, right? Is someone else coming behind him?" and looked for others. Sometimes I remember that first encounter as if it happened yesterday.