No Ordinary Moments

It’s been almost a year since I—despite being explicitly warned—threw my cap and tassle into the air at graduation. Considering that I finished my last exam five months ago, many have asked, with an indirect amount of forwardness, what exactly am I doing here. “I’m a writer for our alumni magazine,” I reply, a perfunctory response that serves to quell their curiosity. Most are content with this answer and don’t venture to guess what it is I actually write.

One of the main components of my job at the magazine has been writing obituaries. And after five months of condensing entire lives into three sentences, I’ve come to two conclusions: One, that it’s impossible, and two, that I am going to die someday. But despite questioning my own mortality at the age of 23, I’ve also become intimately tied to lives I once believed to be distant. I have written the stories of former undergrads much like myself, who found love in an unlikely corner of campus, who cheered fanatically at Memorial Stadium, and who insisted that their time at UC Berkeley was the best of their lives.

I’ve been coming to terms with this last thought for sometime. As I picked up my diploma yesterday, it occurred to me: If college is, as they say, the best time of your life, then what happens next?

 

Finding the Korean Voice

As Cho Seung-Hui stormed through classrooms and gunned down students and faculty at Virginia Tech last Monday, I was only a few hundred miles north in Washington, D.C., where I was meeting one of my heroes, Norman Mineta, one of the most successful Asian American politicians in history. Recounting his experience living in an internment camp during World War II, Mr. Mineta expressed the urgency to develop a coherent Asian American voice within the national discourse.

It was only later when my roommate Paul, a fellow Korean American, informed me of the shooter’s ethnicity that we impulsively began to fear a potential backlash. This paranoia was symptomatic of our community, the product of our self-created “out-group” identity. This was evident in many Korean American responses to the shootings. In Los Angeles, Reverend John Park publicly expressed shame and responsibility for the murders. Another Korean American later confessed: “I cannot even approach my co-workers to talk. I feel so ashamed.” A report noted that Korean students at Virginia Tech locked themselves inside their dorm rooms, too afraid to come out. Another stated that there were Koreans preparing to leave the country.

 

Obama at the Bat

On April 16th, 1947, Jackie Robinson went hitless in his Brooklyn Dodgers debut and made history. Robinson’s first season would be defined by the taunts of bigoted fans and the jeers of skeptics. But his unrivaled intensity and courage epitomized his commitment to a game that truly was America’s pastime. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would later describe Robinson as “a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.”

Amid the star-studded dynamics of modern sports, we easily forget about the significant contribution and courage Robinson provided to future generations. Consider that without Robinson, Barry Bonds wouldn’t be chasing Hank Aaron’s home run record and Wilt Chamberlain wouldn’t have scored 100 points in a basketball game. Robinson’s audacity transformed baseball from America’s pastime into a global game—today, fans scream Spanish phrases at the ballpark and rename Japanese pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke simply “Dice-K”, phonetically for their convenience.

Allowing Robinson to play was baseball’s acknowledgement that there existed the possibility of a greater game, one unhindered by our prejudices. It’s appropriate that baseball, the most democratic of team sports, reflected a major step in our nation’s ongoing struggle for equality. It provided just one of many outlets of change, a drastic alteration of our collective conscience.

 

The Human Angel

The following is a true story: Amidst the chaos of the Korean War, a gaunt North Korean refugee named Daesok Lee, barely sixteen, arrived at a refugee camp on the Imjin River. It had been over a month since he left his family behind in Pyongyang, during which time he had barely survived the merciless winter and advancing Communist Army during his exodus south.

Hunger led him outside the camp, against curfew, where he stumbled upon several South Korean soldiers carving up a dead cow. Taking pity on their shy new friend, one of the soldiers tossed Daesok some meat. As he turned to admire his gift, he was confronted by their captain, hidden behind aviator sunglasses. Realizing that he had broken orders, Daesok concealed his prize and silently awaited his punishment. But the captain instead offered a smile, asking the teenager about himself. The harmless interrogation lasted but five minutes, and the captain, with a pat on the back, departed. Confused, Daesok walked back to the camp, unaware of the significance of the meeting.

 

Why Ms. Right is Wrong

When I think of conservative pundit Ann Coulter, I can’t help but think about that scene from Scarface when Tony Montana, in a cocaine-induced rage, taunts a group of diners in a fancy restaurant: “You need people like me so you can … say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ … You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don’t have that problem. I always tell the truth—even when I lie.” Coulter might not be a liar, but her reality is far from the truth.

Coulter, a self-described “polemicist” who likes to “stir up the pot” and does not pretend to be “impartial or balanced”, has made a career out of controversy. Given her track record, I’m not shocked that she referred to John Edwards as a “faggot” earlier this month. At this point Coulter has to offend people just to get by. By not doing so, she would condemn herself to what every celebrity, A or B-list, fears most: obscurity.

 

Japan’s Inconvenient Truth

History repeats itself,” Karl Marx once explained, “first as tragedy, second as farce.” In the case of Holocaust denial, historical tragedy is overshadowed by the farcical nature of egregious conspiracy theories. Some say it should be a crime; I disagree. Punishing these incendiaries sends a questionable message: that reality is too fragile for their hollow words, and their mindless banter could, in fact, come true. But what if German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly denied the Holocaust? Then the scenario would be different—the hollow words substantiated from the most inappropriate source. We realize then that the unfortunate nature of history is that the truth is surprisingly malleable and often exploited by those with the most to lose by it.

 

The Departed Wear Prada

According to the Delta Zeta sorority Web site, their national creed begins as follows: “To the world, I promise temperance and insight and courage, to crusade for justice, to seek the truth and defend it always.” But amidst the current scandal at DePauw University, it seems they are adding a not-so-subtle admonition: Do as I say, not as I do.

Facing declining membership and a budget deep in the red, the Delta Zeta sorority attempted a major makeover last month, the end result of which was the purge of 23 of the 35 active members at DePauw, all removed from the house and forced to find new accommodations mid-semester. Controversy arose when it was discovered that among the departed were the chapter’s overweight, black, Korean and Vietnamese sisters. Those expelled overwhelmingly described the remaining members in terms of their physical appearance. “Half of them were blond. The others were brunette or redhead. They’re beautiful women. They were more fit,” said one of the excluded members.

 

The iPod Education Gap

Oprah Winfrey’s newest project, featured on an ABC primetime special this past Monday, is The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a $40 million, 52-acre, 28-building, state-of-the-art independent school promoting academic achievement for girls living near Johannesburg, South Africa. When asked why she chose to construct her “dream school” in Africa, she replied: “There’s no better place than Africa because the sense of need, the sense of value for education and the appreciation for it could not be greater.”

I can think of a better place: the United States of America.

 

Party of Six

The term “six-party talks”, used to describe the efforts for a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear standoff, might not be a misnomer, but it’s certainly misleading. That’s because the six-party talks are really the two-party talks, with four spectators on the sidelines. Surprisingly, the other party in question isn’t South Korea; it’s the United States. Binding North Korea’s neighbors to the talks is certainly a shrewd political move that adds legitimacy and pressure to the negotiations, but as we’ve ascertained from recent events, international pressures are a distant dynamic compared to the fragility of U.S.-North Korean relations.

Since 2003, South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and the United States have been exerting pressure on North Korea to dismantle their nuclear weapons program. At the same time, President Bush promoted his policy of alienating the Stalinist regime, aligning it with the “Axis of Evil” and branding North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il a “pygmy.” Pyongyang responded to the stalemate in negotiation and overtly hostile name-calling by successfully testing a nuclear weapon this past October.

This disregard for North Korea shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. For years, the six-party talks somehow escaped the general debate and, while current analysts bicker over the potential costs of nuclear war with Iran, we instinctually stick our heads in the sand like oblivious ostriches and ignore the real threat of nuclear war with North Korea. Of the 25 paragraphs President Bush dedicated in his 2007 State of the Union address to foreign policy, 23 dealt with the Middle East, including the potential nuclear threat in Iran and its phantom link with Al-Qaeda, Iraq and Sept. 11th. He subtly interjected a single sentence mentioning North Korea. A major obstacle in American foreign policy had been blatantly omitted, and nobody seemed to notice or care.

 

The Kennedy Connection

Columnist George Will had some Valentine’s Day advice for Barack Obama: “If you get the girl up on her tiptoes, you should kiss her. The electorate is on its tiptoes because (he) has collaborated with the creation of a tsunami of excitement about him.” Standing in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous “House Divided” speech, Obama heeded Will’s advice last Saturday and began his much-anticipated bid for the presidency. Clever campaigning and media fascination aligned Obama’s developing political persona with nostalgia for past leaders.

Columnist Ruth Marcus called him the “truly Clintonian figure running for the Democratic nomination,” surely to the chagrin of that other Clinton. These appeals to historical sentiment are overt; but when contrasted to his perceived inexperience, many inevitably question the comparisons as premature.

Newton Minow, a former political advisor, proposed another president: “I thought, ‘I haven’t felt this same thing since Jack Kennedy.’”

 

Serious Art, Frat-Guy Fun

You’ve probably heard of Tucker Max, the 30 year old self-proclaimed “asshole” popularly known for his elaborate online stories recounting his booze and sex-fueled adventures. He sums it up: “I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.” Tucker Max is purportedly the reason Duke Law School dropped from 7 to 11 in the U.S. News rankings during his tenure; after reading his “Sushi Pants” story, in which he decides to buy a portable breathalyzer and match his blood alcohol content to his age, I would completely accept the claim as fact.

Described by The New York Times as “highly entertaining and grossly reprehensible,” Max’s self-titled website is largely composed of his documented escapades and receives around 1.2 million visitors a month. He’s made a career out of selling his stark frankness. And in the “truthiness” age, where it is the responsibility of the reader to discern between truth and “kinda” truth, Max’s unabashed candor is a relieving quaff of honesty (or beer) for parched throats.

Max’s stories are also ancillary to a greater literary revolution, defined by columnist Warren St. John as “fratire”: “Young men, long written off by publishers as simply uninterested in reading, are driving sales of a growing genre of books like Mr. Max’s that combine a fraternity house-style celebration of masculinity with a mocking attitude toward social convention, traditional male roles and aspirations of power and authority.” Max is often the first to admit that his work is not high brow and that his audience is composed partly of “dudes who can’t spell ‘dude’ right.” But fratire, in a grander context, represents an outlet for angst, a philosophy of expression and, surprisingly, a candid methodology that can be construed as art.

 

Eastwood’s War on War

A critical scene from Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated film “Letters from Iwo Jima” resonates in the zeitgeist: As a group of Japanese troops in a cave prepare to dispatch a captured U.S. soldier, an officer stops them and demands that the prisoner receive medical attention. Later, the same officer finds a letter from the U.S. soldier’s pocket and reads it to his countrymen. The letter contains the concerns of the soldier’s mother, emphasizing her wish that her son return home safely. As one Japanese soldier later reflects, “(his) mother sounded like mine”, a profound realization of the commonality obscured by the toils of combat. And for a brief moment, the soldiers reassess the wounded American and glumly realize the folly of the madness surrounding them.

Eastwood’s film documents the last days the of ill-equipped and malnourished defenders against the impending onslaught on Iwo Jima. The film does not depict a Japanese version of the Battle of Iwo Jima, but rather the Japanese experience. It was not meant to be the contradiction to the American side, but a complement to express unrealized but inherent similarities.

I’m not ruining the movie because you already know how it ends: Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima, about 1,000 would survive. The film portrayed soldiers who do not struggle for victory, but come to terms with impending death. Eastwood depicts the brutality of these final days in harrowing fashion, using drained color and barren landscapes to portray those bleak final days. This is not a movie of personal glory on the battlefield, but the stark reality of war.

 

Biden Declares Campaign, Says Something Stupid

I really hope this is the last stupid racist thing Joe Biden says in public.  This guy’s running for president. And our leading Senator in foreign relations.

Kevin Drum’s take:

I’ve never really had the animus toward Biden that a lot of people do, but jeebus. He’s just a gaffe machine waiting for someone to flip the power switch on. Back to the Senate, Joe.

With all due respect to Biden, there’s already a gaffe machine right now in the White House–and the power switch was turned on too long ago.

 

In Zook We Trust

“The world,” Albert Einstein once said, “is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” This thought best sums up the lessons taught by political science lecturer Darren Zook, less one additional stipulation: that we, in fact, have the potential and responsibility to do something about it.

Through primary sources, engrossing lectures and the most open office on campus, Zook’s courses have created a welcoming academic forum that fosters both debate and a painful wait-list. His lessons elicit a connectedness among different cultures, emphasizing a more human ideal that transforms an exotic world into a simpler and strangely more familiar place. As alumnus Matthew Velasco fondly recalled, “It is ever apparent in (Zook’s) words and actions that he is one of few professors whose ultimate goal lies in the betterment of his students, a trait far too rare in an institution that boasts of producing future world leaders.”

But despite his obvious popularity and subsequent accolades, Zook’s courses have inexplicably been restricted by the political science department. When asked why, department chairman Pradeep Chhibber explained that “the decision was not personal, but based on yearly plans when classes are assigned based on the needs of the department.” He went on to clarify that, “these are tough decisions, and faculty members need to do what’s in the best interest of the department.”

 

Great Election Resource

This is a great resource for those of us who are having trouble keeping track of the 15 candidates who have declared either their intention to run or to form an exploratory committee for the 2008 Presidential Election.

(Editor’s Note: The fact that one of the categories is “number of Daily Show appearances” acknowledges the undeniable influence Jon Stewart has on modern politics, good or bad. And while I’m personally partial to Colbert myself, I cannot help but smile at this)