Greenlight to Freedom at the Hendersonville library (2022-09-28)

We visited the Hendersonville Public Library to see Greenlight to Freedom on the bookshelf!

How did it happen? FSI Fundraising Fellow Eben Appleton asked what she could do for our trip near her area. I reminded her that high school students in the FSI-GHSU had donated Greenlight to Freedom to libraries across the USA. Perhaps she could donate a book to a library in the area?

Off she went! She talked with a few librarians and got the book on the shelf of at least one library.

Then as part of our trip, we visited the Hendersonville Library.

When I first told Songmi about her book being at the library she was not that impressed. She was touched when she saw it on the bookshelf, however. There are many books in the world that have been published, but hers was one of them on the library shelf.

Songmi looked up her name in the library catalog and saw her name there as an author!

How unlikely was this? When she was in North Korea, she only studied at elementary school for a year and she says she went a decade without even seeing a book. And now, she is an author with a book in libraries across the USA!

Yes, I am the extremely proud co-author! People ask me why I wanted to write her book. There are many reasons, and one important one. Her story would not have been told without a co-author willing to write the book. She had no confidence in telling her story, she said she had no idea how to write a book, and she didn't even know how to get started.

And now, her story is in the Hendersonville Library!!!

Additionally, she said that I am the only person in the world that she trusted to tell her story!

Her story has a range of emotions and feelings, from humor, to anger, to sadness. Many readers have talked about the various feelings they felt as they read. And as you can see on my face.

I laughed...

I got angry...

Yeah, and disgusted about the North Korean system condemning people to terrible lives.

Thank you Mr. Ken Stuart! He has also been one of the top fans for Greenlight to Freedom. He bought at least 20 copies of the book. He flew in from California to meet Songmi directly.

He drove us to the library and other places during the day.

Not pictured? Eben Appleton! After all of her behind-the-scenes work, she got sick earlier that morning!

Greenlight to Freedom is on Patreon, Amazon, Kyobo.

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Random photos from today

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Last weekend: Suicide, Kim Young Ha, NK

Credit: Joanne Cho Event 1: Friday night I went to a talk given by Fulbright junior researcher Joanne Cho. She did a great job putting together statistics about some of the most commonly cited reasons that so many Koreans commit suicide. Probably the most provocative tidbit: Cho watched 86 dramas from the spring of 2012 to now, she says that 63 had "scenes depicting or discussing suicide" in a favorable light (as a way to solve problems, that troubled people can be forgiven for their sins and are even seen as sympathetic). Another interesting tidbit: While it is often cited that Korea is number one in the world in suicide (among countries reporting reliable statistics), what I had not realized or had forgotten is that Korean men are number 8 in the world compared to men in other countries with reliable statistics, Korean women are #1 in the world when compared to women in other countries. My questions for the speaker: 1) What was a finding in your research th...

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