2015-04-24 Cherie Yang speaking to the US military

It was great speaking along with Cherie Yang and another speaker (who prefers to remain anonymous) on the US army base.

However, I forgot to inform them about one key fact: The soldiers would be dressed in military fatigues. They both stopped walking when they saw the US soldiers. The other speaker, who had served in the North Korean military, went outside to smoke a cigarette. He returned a few minutes later, then left again.

Then finally he told us that he was so nervous that he wasn't sure he could give the speech. He had been taught to kill US soldiers, that US soldiers were blood-thirsty and enjoyed killing for fun. Seeing them in their uniforms alarmed him.

He calmed down and gave the speech.

Cherie was also quite nervous, so I asked her to stand with the soldiers to take a photo, but she refused at first. So I took her there, and took a photo with her!

But as you can see from some of the photos, she was having a great time talking with the soldiers.

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2021 reflection:

* At that time, we didn't have a real organization.

* One US soldier made this happen. As usual, even when there are many people around, it takes one person to lead and push through things. When there is pushback or the usual people raising concerns, one person needs to answer the objections and keep things moving. There are many great ideas in this world that never get done because some people mistake their words for action.

* It took more than a week for us to get the photos approved. We had to censor the US soldiers at the orders of the US military. Finally, about a week later, they approved us posting the photos, then the next time we had an event on the US army base, we were allowed to take the photos and post them without any of them being censored. The event was held on April 15th, we uploaded the photos on April 24th.

* If you think such an event is great, I'm happy to hear your opinion! Let's hope your thoughts lead to action. www.lovetnkr.org/donate

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

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