I spend a decent amount of time with folks from foreign countries who have moved to the US including my friend Ed who grew in Czechoslovakia. While in Czechoslovakia, Ed experienced the Cold War days, the fall of the Soviet Union and new found freedom in his country.
Last night Ed and I were talking with another friend, who was attempting to explain that Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il "were Dictators, you know, but they have done a lot of good things for North Korea". Ed was flabbergasted by the naivity of the statement. He explained that when he was growing up, you stood in the lines, you saluted the flag and then you went into your basement to talk about what you really thought about the regime. And, as he said, people were being tortured, but not to the extent that is happening in North Korea. Our speaker of the "a lot of good things" statement seems to me to be one of those people who just don’t understand that there are evil, evil people in this worldand that makes them dangerous.
Another quick story about dangerous people. Last week I covered a panel discussion event at the Carter Presidential Center featuring former President Carter, Roselyn Carter, and two former ambassadors. Speaking about their trip to North Korea in 1994, Roselyn talked about how beautiful Pyongyang was, and its impressive buildings. Jimmy talked about how he and Kim Il Sung talked fishing, and Jimmy marveled that KIS knew what each of the silos on the side of the river. [I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume those were grain silos and not missle silos!]
These recollections were related as one would tell about visiting a college friend. There was no irony. No hint of recognition of the fact that millions of North Koreans were being purposely starved todeath by Kim. I was astounded. This is a man who had (and his son has now) the blood of tens of thousands on his hands and the Carters acted as though it was just a pleasant visit with a neighbor down the road. It was this same trip that Carter built the didasterous "Agreed Framework" plan that led to today's nuclear confrantation with North Korea. These Carters are dangerous.
Another note about my Czech friend, Ed, down the same line: From Jay Norlinger: “Want a little language? We often talk about the mysteries of English, in this column — and how a foreigner ever learns to pronounce it. In a letter to me, a reader wrote of a well-known routine by Gallagher, the (one-named) comedian: Consider good vs. food; laughter vs. daughter; comb vs. tomb vs. bomb; and — best of all — go vs. do. Yes, go vs. do — that takes the cake.” Kudos to my friend Ed, whose English is flawless. I have such tremendous admiration for folks who learn English as a second [or third, fourth, fifth] language and then speak it flawlessly.
