Dear Yidi

I commented on a blog post today, be sure to read it!

Yidi's Blog

I was also deeply touched by this incident, as a Korean American I can only hope for the best between the two Korea's. I wrote a similar article on my blog where I expressed my hope for the two nations to come together as one someday. I am skeptical to what Kim Jong-Un's plan is. Does he plan to use this agreement to peace as a way to get inside of South Korea? Or is he genuine in his attempt at peace. I think everyone is skeptical to whatever his plans are at this moment in time. I asked a few people from Korea, and most of their opinions were that Kim Jong-Un is planning something devious and we should be scared. I also, heard from my mother that South Korea's own president is Moon Jae-In is an undercover communist and secretly colluding with Kim Jong-Un. It makes you wish that all this could be over already, North Korea's constant threats and nuclear testing has been exhausting for South Korea and the USA. I truly hope one day the people of North and South Korea come together as one and can become whole again, but that won't be for some time.

North and South finally coming together, or maybe not?

Today will go down in history as the day North and South Koreans came together and finally agreed to work for peace. Ever since 1953 when the Korean war ended the people of the world have watched warily for what would happen between the separated nation. For the past couple decades, North Korea had come into the spotlight with their nuclear tests, and threats. Kim Jong Il's death handed the dictatorship to his son Kim Jong Un. People hoped for a change, but it was eventually more of the same sort of leadership. Our own president Donald Trump just threatened North Korea not too long ago saying, "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States, They will be met with fire and the fury like the world has never seen." How have we come from a state of issuing death

threats to one another, to a peace agreement? It makes you wonder if North Korea is being completely genuine in their offer of peace and denuclearization. 

As someone of Korean heritage, I am anxious for North and South Korea to become whole again, but I am also scared that the South will be taken advantage of. I asked my mother today who comes from South Korea, and she said that Kim Jong Un is lying to South Korea and is using the peace agreement as a way to further infiltrate the South and that the South Korean president Moon Jae-In is an undercover communist who is working with Kim Jong Un. This might not be all that farfetched after all weirder stories have happened to be true. We will just have to wait and see as North and South Korea will continue to have talks in the future. 

The question remains though, what should the United States be doing in all of this? Should they remain outside of the discussion and let the torn nation work things out; or should they be completely involved? I feel the United States would do well to let South Korea handle the discussion. The United States I feel can only do harm in this situation, they should just be the big brother and watch from afar. I really hope Kim Jong Un is being genuine in all of this, but you just can't know for sure. 

Dear Sarah

I wrote a reply to a post on:

Trying To Understand Our Government

I completely agree with you, how could people even think that the people of America would give up their Second Amendment Rights? I wrote an article similar to yours about the need for more counseling, and mental health awareness in schools. Students need a counselor, adviser, or therapist. It would be extremely hard to get rid of the Second Amendment, the best we could do in the mean time is reform it, and as you said, "put a few steps in place before you're able to purchase a weapon like a psych evaluation and maybe provide a legitimate reason of purchase." I'm pretty sure though if the shooter really wanted a gun they could just purchase it illegally though. Mental illness is very serious and is almost never diagnosed in school time. We should increase the age at which you can buy these weapons, also we should have a database for these people who fail a psych evaluation to never in their life be able to purchase a firearm.

Guns don't kill students, students kill students

School, it is the turbulent battleground that everyone has and will endure. Bullying, fighting, name-calling, shaming, the list goes on everyone has been guilty or been a victim at some point in their lives. The current debate that followed the Parkland, Florida school shooting is if we should have gun control, and or should we gut the second amendment. The second amendment no doubt needs reform as firearm technology has greatly advanced since the late 1700's. The best Minutemen could get about 3 shots off in a minute; you could go through a few full magazines in an automatic rifle in the same amount of time. To get Americans to give up their guns would be extremely hard. The task would be even harder if you're 15 years old and can't even vote. The bigger problem is with the students and a school system that chews you up and spits you out.

To say students are mean to each other is an understatement. A student will tell their peer to "go kill yourself," and feel zero remorse. Who are these children raised by where they think it is okay to say/do these things? We need more accountability, and we need students to actually care about their peers. In today's school system you feel as if nobody really cares about you. Our government really needs to step in and do something. Because as it stands the school system keeps churning out kids who are bitter and hated their school experience. Many people have psychological issues that aren't diagnosed in school time. For instance, bullying a young kid with depression could cause them to commit suicide. A big step would be to have more counseling for individual students. They could have maybe 1 counselor for every 100-150 students that they could talk to, who could get in-depth and actually get to know the student. Another step could be to not leave anyone left out; typically school shooters often are loners that say that nobody cared about them, especially their peers. Schools could have time devoted to students getting to know one another, talk about problems they are having, etc. This ties into gun control, just because you get rid of guns doesn't mean students won't try to murder their peers with other types of weapons. What will it come to, will we have to get rid of anything dangerous? 

While gun control is a very large issue that won't be resolved anytime soon, getting personal with students can be done. Few would oppose reform to help the children of America get through the rigors of school. We reap what we sow, we have to raise children up better, and not just at school, but at home too. 

Donald Trump Vs. Kim Jong Un Coming Soon

I read an article today on ThinkProgress by Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani. Adrienne gives a fairly liberal view on the ordeal. She is senior editor at ThinkProgress and has a Master's of Science in International Relations. Adrienne begins her editorial with a warning on how the talks should be very well conducted to avoid any repercussions. Repercussions meaning at worst all out war with North Korea which would devastate our South Korean allies. I totally agree with Adrienne on how we must take these talks very seriously. "Diplomacy is hard, and it takes a lot of time. Direct talks can help, but everything won't be solved in one meeting."(Varkiani)
The article announced the coming soon meeting between Donald Trump our beloved president, and Kim

Things haven't really been going well between Donald and Kim, Adrienne tells of how they've threatened and insulted one another. I think Donald and Kim have a sort of similar lifestyle, they live lavishly and are in positions of power when they really shouldn't be. Donald and Kim, they're almost like brothers. Adrienne goes on to talk about how it'll be very awkward talks after our president basically said he'd demolish North Korea.

Adrienne also talks about how North Korea has stated they would be open to denuclearization. Which is fantastic news. This is the starting point for Trump to use his famous dealing skills and win over North Korea. With currently no South Korean ambassador we need to get into gear for these talks. The talks will be here before we know it and I just hope Donald can do the right thing and get the ball rolling on North Korea's denuclearization.

The article was well written and informative and contained many quotes which were highly relevant to the topic. I enjoyed the article even though it was a bit boringly written. I feel that if the topic weren't so interesting I wouldn't have wanted to read the entire article. Overall I feel like it does its job on informing the reader well.

Parkland Tragedy

Yet another American tragedy happened just last week. A high school shooting in Parkland, Florida occurred on Valentine's day 2018. The media has blown up over this shooting. You'd think that the media would learn that this is exactly the kind of turnout the shooter wants. The shooter is eating up all this attention, that he never got before. I read an article earlier today on The Washington Post by Kathleen Parker. The opinion piece was about the shooting and the actions of the politicians, and the media surrounding it. Kathleen Parker comes from the point of view of a middle-aged white journalist, that grew up in a home that had guns, and enjoys shooting guns. Her opinion of the debate surrounding the shooting is synonymous with my own. Kathleen explains that the politicians and media are not being conscientious to the victims, and the families involved. It has only been a week and a half since the shooting, and already the media is going crazy over the news since they don't have anything else to report. Kathleen goes on to talk of the NRA and their spokesperson Dana Loesch. Calling Dana and other young female conservatives out saying they are "aimed at sexualizing guns, or metaphorizing weapons to within an inch of their lives." Kathleen goes on to protect media saying that "the media follows news, a school massacre qualifies." I disagree with that notion, media is totally in it for themselves. Kathleen raises an interesting counter though, saying "You can’t talk about freedom while also making an argument for gutting the First Amendment." I'd like to believe in Kathleen's vision of a country that was more personable and caring for victims and families of the recent shooting. Our country just doesn't care I feel that we live in a time where mass shootings are so common place that everyone is jaded to any new American tragedy. I do agree with Kathleen however we do need more "adult" discussions when talking of gun control and gun related tragedies.

Government Shutdown Read All About It!

On Friday, February 9, 2018, Politico published an article on the end of the government shutdown, written by John Bresnahan, Jennifer Scholtes, and Heather Caygle. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House is quoted as saying, “This is a great victory for our men and women in uniform. Republicans and Democrats joined together to finally give our troops the resources and our generals the certainty to plan for the future." Even more money to our nation's military. Trump tweeted saying "Our military will now be stronger than ever before-." FYI the U.S. spends upwards of about 600 billion a year to fund our defense, comparatively our nation gives about 20 billion a year to NASA. At 5:30 a.m. the bill was passed at 240-186. Major win for the GOP, the democrats got some of what they wanted though. This whole fiasco started with Rand Paul holding off the vote until midnight leading to this shutdown. Government shutdown is always an interesting topic. I highly recommend you read the article as well as this follow up article on Politico as well by Sarah Ferris.