Bush's upcoming visit to S. Korea isn't really a big headline, unless you know how intense the fears of USA-imported crazy cow have been, how massive and on-going the civil protests have been. Still, there seems to be little to report so far, protest-wise: Korea Times says hundreds were involved in protests yesterday; Korea Herald has nothing about actual protests, but reports that police are prepared for riot duty.
I'm no revolutionary or anything, but I have attended a few protests, some of which include a counter-Nazi rally in Skokie, IL, anti-Nazi /KKK protests (this was 1980-81), pro-Solidarnosc marches, walking past the Horseshoe and booing as R. Reagan received an honorary degree from USC, honking and flipping the bird at skinny-tied fundamentalists condemning me to Hell from the sidewalk with megaphones, wearing my PeaceFire tee-shirt to the park ... where was I? ... but I didn't make it my business. Among other reasons, it's not easy to know whom you need to be protesting, exactly.
Koreans didn't know exactly whom they were protesting, either, back in the day--the whole of the eighties, pretty much. What they remember is that protests got them what they want: the announcement of Korea's first democratic election for national leadership was just in time to make the Seoul Olympics of 1988 a hit. Tuttle, your Humble Narrator has been voting in national elections longer than any Korean alive, O my droogies.
What is curious to me is the degree of resistance to a leader (Lee Myung-bak) popularly elected only a few months ago on a platform that included the very actions for which he now is criticized: a closer relationship w/US. I wonder if Koreans see the totality of who/what they are electing, if they so quickly move to drop his approval rating to 21%.
I know of another president whose numbers are in the basement, but mainly that's because he didn't do the things he said he would: when given the chance to cross the aisle, or to unite the country, he chose divisiveness, partisanship, secrecy and denial at every turn; but, was still re-elected.
So ... where was I? ... it took US six years to catch on--I don't know if Korea jumped the gun in Lee's case, or caught on to his shenanigans in record time, but I'll admit it's tricky sometimes to figure out who's got our interests at heart. Click and Clack The Tappet Brothers (TM) had a great line today, as improved by me:
I'm no revolutionary or anything, but I have attended a few protests, some of which include a counter-Nazi rally in Skokie, IL, anti-Nazi /KKK protests (this was 1980-81), pro-Solidarnosc marches, walking past the Horseshoe and booing as R. Reagan received an honorary degree from USC, honking and flipping the bird at skinny-tied fundamentalists condemning me to Hell from the sidewalk with megaphones, wearing my PeaceFire tee-shirt to the park ... where was I? ... but I didn't make it my business. Among other reasons, it's not easy to know whom you need to be protesting, exactly.
Koreans didn't know exactly whom they were protesting, either, back in the day--the whole of the eighties, pretty much. What they remember is that protests got them what they want: the announcement of Korea's first democratic election for national leadership was just in time to make the Seoul Olympics of 1988 a hit. Tuttle, your Humble Narrator has been voting in national elections longer than any Korean alive, O my droogies.
What is curious to me is the degree of resistance to a leader (Lee Myung-bak) popularly elected only a few months ago on a platform that included the very actions for which he now is criticized: a closer relationship w/US. I wonder if Koreans see the totality of who/what they are electing, if they so quickly move to drop his approval rating to 21%.
I know of another president whose numbers are in the basement, but mainly that's because he didn't do the things he said he would: when given the chance to cross the aisle, or to unite the country, he chose divisiveness, partisanship, secrecy and denial at every turn; but, was still re-elected.
So ... where was I? ... it took US six years to catch on--I don't know if Korea jumped the gun in Lee's case, or caught on to his shenanigans in record time, but I'll admit it's tricky sometimes to figure out who's got our interests at heart. Click and Clack The Tappet Brothers (TM) had a great line today, as improved by me:
Politicians are like diapers: both should be changed regularly, and for the same reason.
1 comment:
Great post, King Tut. And I didn't forget to call you back. I wound up visiting a new apartment, one to which I may move due to my current slumlord. Keep up the good work.
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