Genie Talks

If you don't get the reference: http://genietalk.etri.re.kr/english.html...

For those of you who know me, you know that I am not terribly politically active and rarely even express political opinions. For those of you who don't know me, well, now you know me a little better... I am not apathetic regarding political issues, and I like to listen to opposing ideas and all possible perspectives. So I was intrigued when my Korean History teacher, Genie, expressed her opinion on President Obama.

Genie is an extremely intelligent student who is currently finishing her Doctoral studies in Korean Studies on scholarship from the Korean government. She has traveled to over 40 countries both for academic and professional reasons. She is married with one daughter. She teaches to supplement her scholarship - Modern Korean History to Korean high school students, and the Survey of Korean History to five international students here at Soonchunhyang.

Instead of commenting on the pros or cons of President Obama's fiscal or global policies, she looked at his presidency from a very historical view point. In the broad scheme of all history, America has been around for only a very short time. In that time, a man whose ancestors had been slaves for over a century and a half, less than a century and a half ago, came to hold the most powerful position, arguably, in the world. Not by bloodshed or by terror, but by popular, democratic vote.

Regardless of your view on democracy, history, Obama, politics, or even slavery and race, this is remarkable. Historically, emancipation has always been a difficult decision, and assimilation an even more difficult process. It is no small thing that our country has come so far in this area.

At least, that is the way Genie translated it.