Thirteen years ago I went to Korea to study how Asians excel in their educational efforts. By the mysterious guidance of Love Eternal, I wound up on a small island in the south of Korea . Arrived on this island three years before the September 11, 2001 event in New York . Being so far away and living so close to a people of an ancient culture made me oblivious to exactly what was happening in the United States. Figuring if I as an American in Korea were unclear about dynamics happening in the United States, then most certainly the local Koreans I lived with would be even more out of touch with issues alien to their lives; or was there something elce on their minds that I wasn't aware of? According to the Internet media, what was happening in the U.S appeared like a major event with global implications. Nevertheless, even though Koreans of the school feared for their children and relatives living in the U.S., the common Korean did even blink or stop for a moment to consider this event that Americans soon called "The 911 Terrorist Attack."

I knew a little about Koreaan history and discovered that Koreans were a unique people among peoples of the world. Their primary uniqueness came from a history deeply entrenched with periods of famine and starvation. The length of these periods were extreme and the frequency of these event inhistory were many. Koreasn were a people who were deeply familiar with suffering, hardship and survival. The impact of their battles with natural desaster was so intense that it shaped their language, culture and dietary habits. Thus, it was my conclusion that the suffering of the Korean people had contributed to them having a kind of "tough skin" to world problems. Yet, there was a part of their suffering and burdens that I was unawre of and by that third year, the information about their more recent history was about to makes it appearance in my life.

During the year 2001 as my Korean wife and I lived and taught among the island people, we had the unique opportunity to get to know a people who were very different than main land Koreans; this difference was not very obvious to me but my Korean wife told me that she felt as if she were living in a foreigbn country, one so strange as to have a completely different language, culture and history. It was during a "Free Talk" class at the school one evening in 2001 that the issue of suffering a terror that the U.S. people struggled with was brought to the class for open discussion. It was a highl;y unusual discussion as even those Koreans fluent in English treated the toopis as shallow and irrelevant. One young college student noticed my discomfort with the less than enthusistic attitude of the class that evening. After class she made an effort to speak to me but waited until I was away from the crowd and on the sidewalsk heading home. It's very common for students to walk the teacher home out of kindness as well as a chance to further practice speaking English; however the mannerisms of the student betrayed some nerviousness with speaking. Her eyes darted left and right many times as if checking to see if anyone was watching us, then she stopped walking and began speaking in hushed tones like someone telling a secrt message or something they didn't want any others to hear. What she said to me was the most shocking information about recent Korean history and issues that I had ever heard.

This issue that weighed heavenly upon the minds of Koreans was brought to my attention one evening as I shopped at a tiny corner market near the school where I taught. While in the store, an elderly woman came in and began to yell and scream at me with tears of anguish. My fluency with Korean was excellent even through the store owner tried to silence her and calm her down; I clearly understood what she said. What was this woman upset about that she yelled at me? What she said became my introduction to a bleeding wound that the island Koreans tried to hide. What was this wound they suffered from? As amazing as it happened to be, the pain and grief of the old woman was absolutely no different than the pain and grief I head that Americans suffered with in the 911 event. Those with keen minds could put the parts of this puzzle together rapidly and ask, “Do you mean to say that the woman's grief and anger was due to her being a victim of terrorism?” Exactly!

Deciphering what the woman said to me, it was obvious that her baby was taken and killed by terrorist some time ago and she was powerless to stop this horror. Though what she said was clear to understand, she was nevertheless eventually silenced by the store owner and escorted out of the store. I thought how in the world could this woman say such a thing to me? How could she accuse me of killing her baby? Without being a professional police investigator, it's possible to conclude that she lost her child to a violent act from a person or people who looked like me. So the quest of my next eight years on that island was to discover the truth of what the woman said. Was she out of her mind? No, unfortunately that would have been good news. However, I discovered through some simple questions that the whole island knew of the event of which this woman spoke and not only the island but the entire nation of Korea was split into two countries by the power that took the life of her baby.