Mother Nature Meets Father Time

Asian-American Month

Now that June is almost here, I discovered we were in the middle of Asian-American Heritage month!

One of my best friends was adopted when he was six years old by an American soldier and his wife. My friend is Vietnamese by birth, and his natural parents were killed in the Vietnam Conflict. About three years ago, he reconnected with his biological aunts, uncles, and cousins. He returned to Vietnam for the first time in thirty years, in 2004, when the tsunami destroyed the opposite coast. My friend is now, himself, an American soldier, and in 2004, he and I were both stationed in the Republic of Korea (South Korea for the politically challenged folks). I remember he had difficulty signing back into his unit from leave, because his commander had pulled his leave form, to verify his location in relation to the disaster zone.

My friend met a young lady during his (now many) trips home to Vietnam. I am happy to announce that she recently arrived in the US after two years solid of immigration paperwork, and the fiance visa, and so forth. They are set to be legally married next month, but they already had a ceremony in Vietnam with her family last Christmas.

On another note, I had a friend, from my Army days, whose family was from India. He was very smart and absolutely funny. Most of his humor was poking fun at the stereotypes of Indians and other Asian Immigrants. He was proud of his ethnic heritage, but never let it consume him. He said he would always be proud of his culture, but have no doubt, he is an American. I think too many of us are quick to forget this. Many Asian-Americans, and Latinos, and such are second and third generation Americans. Let us not be so judgemental.

Anyong haseyo?
Now, back to my year in Korea! My favorite memory was the food! I loved sitting on the mat at a traditional Korean restauraunt, while the food was cooked in front of us. We would have huge parties around the tables. we called it "Beef on a Leaf", but sometimes it wasn't beef, but Americans never pass up the opportunity to display their own ignorance. Why is that? LOL

Most of the Korean Nationals with which I worked and interacted socially were use to our "Americanisms" and did not really mind too much. I was left wondering why Americans are not so tolerant to the visitors of our country?

As long as you do not travel north of Seoul, it is easy to believe the Korean War actually ended in 1953 with the peace agreement, but the closer you travel to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), the thicker the tensions grow. There is a reason much of the population of the Republic of Korea lives in Seoul and points south, and it is not simply because all the jobs are there. It has been my experience that jobs follow people more often than people follow jobs! While we focus on the threats in the Middle East, let us not forget unresolved conflict, such as the Korean War, and other forgotten disputes.
Anyong ki kayseyo! Comsapnidah!

Natural Spring