For the past few weeks there have been regular, almost daily, protests in downtown Seoul over the government’s decision to resume imports of U.S. beef. Protesters have been concerned about the potential for mad cow disease. Strikingly, large numbers of protesters have been middle and high school students. I’ve heard different opinions of the reasons behind the movement of so many students, but regardless of why it started it has become the first major test for President Lee Myung Bak’s administration.
CNN is now reporting that the government has backed down. The main demand of the protesters is that no beef be imported if it comes from cows over 30 months old. The government is apparently looking to renegotiate with the U.S. to make that a reality.
Protest organizers have been relentless. I teach English at some Samsung affiliates in the area around city hall and the Blue House (Korea’s White House) where the demonstrations took place. Several times over the past few weeks I’ve encountered the protesters or the side effects of their actions (traffic, blocked streets and such). On Sunday, my wife and I were in the area and found ourselves in the midst of hundreds of riot police on the way to our destination. I know there have been massive protests in Seoul over the years, but I’ve never seen so many riot police in one area myself. Seeing that many of them at once really drove home the scale of the protests. It was a bit unnerving, though it’s all been entirely peaceful. Ultimately, the number of protesters combined with their persistence drove their message home.
Watching this all unfold has made me rather depressed. I don’t care one whit what South Koreans think of American beef, so I’m not losing any sleep there. What bothers me is that this is perfect example of how the citizens of a (largely) democratic society are supposed to react when they feel the government is headed in the wrong direction. South Koreans have used their right of protest since before it became a right. Protests, sometimes violent ones, played a major role in bring about the transition from years of military dictatorship to a democratically elected government. The depressing part, for me, is how this example of democracy in action makes glaringly obvious the lack of such patriotism in the United States.
Over the past several years, the meaning of patriotism in the U.S. has been distorted from ‘love of one’s country’ to ’supporting Bush’s War’. The voices of dissent have largely been found online. Physical protests have been organized, but they have been infrequent and inconsequential. South Koreans are fiercely standing up to their government over the import of beef, but Americans have made little effort to stand up to their government over lies, human rights violations, the abuse of Constitutional freedoms, and an illegal war. Consider the gravity of those issues compared to the import of beef.
Barack Obama’s campaign theme is ‘change’. It’s going to take more than change in Washington to get America back on track. We the people need a serious attitude adjustment.
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