Happy about the attack? FUCK YOU!!!

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m venting here, no need to read any more…

For the past couple of days, my Korean students (most of them freshmen) have been asking me how I feel about the recent attack on The United States of America, my country.

Yesterday, I just told them that I didn’t want to talk about it, as they are simply unequipped to understand AND I didn’t want to cry in front of my students. (not dissing 18 year-olds everywhere… but 18 year-olds here in Korea are the MOST naive people I have ever seen! They (generally speaking) simply do NOT have the capacity to understand how I feel right now. These are college freshmen who are emotionally at the level of American high school freshmen (no fault of theirs… just the culture here…) or lower.

Today, as I wrapped up a class I would have prefered to cancel, I asked, “Does anyone have any questions?” To my surprise, there WAS a question: “How your opinion of the accident in New York?” with a little smirk, that said ‘Ha! Ha! The US gets taken down a peg or two!’

I almost lost it.

I simply said, “Well, how would YOU feel if it had been YOUR country?” and left it at that.
Well, here at the SDMB, I am going to post my true reply (again, no need to read further… there will be nothing of interest, nothing of substance, nothing well-reasoned, nothing coherent… just me ranting):

So, “how my opinion?” you smirking little fuck? Let me tell you! I’m speechless! Many thousands of innocent people have been murdered! “How my opinion???”

FUCK YOU!

My opinion is that MY country has been attacked by unthinking, souless murderers who are currently trying to get used to hell. What did you think? That I would be HAPPY about this? Are you THAT fucking clueless??

I understand that you don’t like the US… I’m not always 100% thrilled with the things that my country does. My country acts in its self-interest, as does EVERY other country. Get used to it.

I see you out in front of the Humanities Building participating (with many other of my students) in various Anti-American protests… OK, you are entitled to your (however uninformed, illogical, blind) opinion, and I would DIE (as have many of my country-men) to defend that! Keep in mind that your country WOULD NOT FUCKING EXIST were it not for the US… Would you rather be part of North Korea? OK, go north! No one is stopping you. I hope you like the taste of grass and tree-bark, because that is what you will be eating there (mostly… you MIGHT be lucky enough to get some food-aid from the western countries, but don’t count on it… your government will be taking most, if not all, of it to feed the army…).

The world owes a LOT to America and other free, westernized democracies (but please forgive me if I focus on the US right now! No insult to other western cultures…).

You like to play StarCraft? You like the internet? Well, bad news, Sparky… the US made both! How about cars and airplanes? Pretty handy, eh? Yup… the US again. The t-shirt, jeans, baseball cap and sneakers you are wearing right now? Made in the US (originally… granted, you guys have copied us… but still… I asked Astrogirl one time why she never wore “Han-Bok” (traditional Korean clothing)… she told me it was uncomfortable. Hmmm. By the way, do you want me to explain what the English on your t-shirt means? Because YOU have no idea, obviously…) Do you like TV? Electric lights? Electricity, for that matter? Do you like telephones?? The US made them…

Guess what, you smirking little asshole: you owe MY country a LOT! MOST of your pathetic, sheltered, commy-sypathizing life you can attribute to the US, and other western democracies, and no one else!

Were it not for western democratic countries, you would now be living in the Democratic Republic of Korea. Starving, with most of your countymen, with no internet, no games, no western products, no education, no way to earn a living… in short you would be a starving ant with no ability to protest the US intervention in ANYTHING, no opportunity to get an education, and no opportunity to have a happy life of your own! And, saddest of all, you WOULDN’T EVEN KNOW IT! You would have been brain-washed into thinking that your life, starving, deprived of all but the most basic creature comforts, completely uneducated… was a perfect life!

Smirk away, you ignorant piece of shit. The best thing about western, democratic society is that we can ignore people like you, and go about the business of being happy.

2

AND, I’m going to post an e-mail that I just got:

Subject: America: The Good Neighbor.
> TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES
> This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing.
> America: The Good Neighbor.
>
> Widespread but only partial news coverage was given
> recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from
> Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television
> Commentator. What follows is the full text of his
> trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional
> Record:
>
> “This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the
> Americans as the most generous and possibly the
> least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany,
> Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy
> were lifted out of the debris of war by the
> Americans who poured in billions of dollars and
> forgave other billions in debts.
>
> None of these countries is today paying even the
> interest on its remaining debts to the United
> States. When France was in danger of collapsing in
> 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and
> their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the
> streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
>
> When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the
> United States that hurries in to help. This spring,
> 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes.
> Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman
> Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged
> countries. Now newspapers in those countries are
> writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
>
> I’d like to see just one of those countries that is
> gloating over the erosion of the United States
> dollar build its own airplane. Does any other
> country in the world have a plane to equal the
> Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the
> Douglas DC10?
>
> If so, why don’t they fly them? Why do all the
> International lines except Russia fly American
> Planes? Why does no other land on earth even
> consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You
> talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios.
> You talk about German technocracy, and you get
> automobiles. You talk about American technocracy,
> and you find men on the moon - not once, but several
> times - and safely home again.
>
> You talk about scandals, and the Americans put
> theirs right in the store window for everybody to
> look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued
> and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most
> of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are
> getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to
> spend here.
>
> When the railways of France, Germany and India were
> breaking down through age, it was the Americans who
> rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the
> New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an
> old caboose. Both are still broke.
>
> I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced
> to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name
> me even one time when someone else raced to the
> Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was
> outside help even during the San Francisco
> earthquake.
>
>
> Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I’m one
> Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get
> kicked around. They will come out of this thing
> with their flag high. And when they do, they are
> entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are
> gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada
> is not one of those.”
>
> Stand proud, America! Wear it proudly!!

3

But I heard something on the radio this morning, driving in to my non-work (I’m a pilot, not much to do today). Seems that someone had brought an American flag down to The Pile (the new name for what used to be the WTC) and attached it to a pole sticking up from the rubble. Those workers nearest, 40 or so, stopped what they were doing, faced it, and saluted. Then they went back to digging.

I misted up a little when I heard that, and again when I read the email you just posted. Thanks.

4

Could you be reading more into his expression than was actually there? Was it a smirk or an embarassed smile, embarassed because some people are uncomfortable asking personal questions but he felt he needed to say SOMETHING to express his concern for you and your people? Do Koreans, as I understand Japanese people do, smile when talking about bad news?

No point in jumping to conclusions. Your students are probably very concerned for you and America and the safety of the world.

5

Considering that all of South Korea is having a day of mourning tomorrow, with all flags at half-mast, I doubt that the sentiment here is one of joy.

I’m also in South Korea, btw, and I haven’t seen anyone who seemed happy about this.