2016-02-02 Eunhee Park's debut

We had a GREAT time introducing TNKR (now FSI) to the American Women's Club, Korea. The event was scheduled to wrap by noon--instead, we got so many questions that it was almost one o'clock before I had to end the event because of another appointment!

Rhonda Rayner Kupka and her team were absolutely great. There are so many great organizations helping so many people, so it was truly an honor that they opened their doors to us. They made the TNKR team feel absolutely welcome. I gave the keynote for the event, but the main part of the program was the three refugee speakers who followed me. They each gave great speeches in different ways. TNKR co-director Lee Eunkoo Lee was able to join, and TNKR tutor Amber Miller also discussed her experience in the program.

Ken Eom is now a veteran speaker. He joined TNKR last March, but he has now given a number of speeches and is really comfortable. He is both poignant and humorous. We had one speaker who was giving her first speech in English and another who was giving her second speech.

We hope we will be able to collaborate with AWC after this. I have given many public speeches, in many cases, it is just a one-time event with no follow up. Several of the ladies in the audience said they hope to collaborate with us in the future, to help us build TNKR.so we can help refugees even more.

2021 Update: One of the speakers not showing her face at that time was Eunhee Park. She had joined us in April 2015. She decided that she would like to give a speech. A few days before, we had a practice session with her.

She has since gone from A-B-C to T-E-D and spoken many times about us changing her life.

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Moments and Movements

The Korea Times

March 24,2014

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/10/626_153960.html

www.patreon.com/fsi21

Get rid of that watermelon!

Part 1: When I was a youngster I used to collect Confederate money, posters and photographs with caricatures of blacks, and "No blacks allowed signs." I loved the money because it was a reminder of how far the sorry Confederacy had fallen. I had one poster of a dark-skinned black boy munching on a watermelon. I would look at that small poster and wonder, "What in the world is wrong with anyone wanting to eat watermelon?" Yes, white people, I'm talking to you. Your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors who thought making fun of blacks for eating watermelon were crazy ! Even people who say that nothing has changed in race relations must acknowledge that the many stereotypes of blacks are no longer prevalent. But then, there are also some ready to remind us of days-gone-by by debunking stuff that doesn't need to be debunked today. According to the Washington Post: The sound you just heard was yet another racial stereotype going kersplat ! Some ...

From nothing to something super special (2023-02-10)

FSI has moved into a better institutional neighborhood where we are the poorest in the area. In August 2022, I was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and in January 2023 FSI achieved incorporation status in South Korea. This has meant that FSI must upgrade operations and structure and I am the one, as chairman and co-president, who will be blamed if it doesn’t happen. I really should not be the chairman, for a variety of reasons, but anyway I am. Eunkoo and I are not the typical executives of a growing organization. In addition to being mainly responsible for building and fundraising for the organization, we are the hands-on leaders who are constantly in contact with North Korean refugee speakers. We look forward to the day we can afford staff to handle many tasks. Until then we can expect to continue having more days like yesterday, even on Eunkoo’s birthday. 2023-02-10 Meeting #1: planning We started Eunkoo’s birthday with a planning...

Living (and dying) in America!

Living in America! Michael Kinsley says it is time to scrap the Star-Spangled Banner. I'm on board with this. Doesn't sound bad, great historical references and all that, but it is even tough to lip- synch it... Kinsley makes a couple of tepid recommendations. My choice? Living in America by James Brown! Can you get more American than James Brown? Drugs. Women. Jail time. Illegitimate children. Car chases. Mixed race. More women. Battle over his estate. Not only should the song be the National Anthem, but the video should also be the National Video... Whistling Past the Graveyard Last night I picked up the June 6-12, 2009 issue of the Washington Afro-American. A page one article in the paper as well as an opinion piece by George Curry document the recent case of the white woman who claimed she was kidnapped by two black men. As I recently asked: Why in the world would anyone believe that such a thing could happen? Why didn't she blame Native American Indians? Looking t...

2020-05-21 Goodbye, Katty Chi

I had heard through the grapevine and now it has been verified: Human rights activist Katty Chi has passed away. She is one of the first people that I met when I got involved in this cause. The first time was in 2012, at an event at the South Korea's National Assembly. She was super cool, one of my favorites as I used to say even when she was alive. And that is the important time to say such things, when people are alive. Whenever we met, I would say to her, "You know what happens when you meet me?" She would say, "Yeah. Time to take a photo?" I'm glad we did. And from Hyun S. Song, a close colleague of hers: And from Liberty in North Korea, the definitive announcement, August 4, 2020

Column on The Root

I've got a column on The Root. It addresses Bruce Bartlett's suggestion that Republicans should support reparations for slavery. CJL The GOP's Next (Black) Idea? Trading slavery reparations for affirmative action. By: Casey Lartigue | Posted: March 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM Concerned that Republicans haven't tried hard enough to reach out to black voters, Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and treasury official under President George H. W. Bush, suggests a shocker: Republicans should come out in favor of reparations for slavery. Republicans for reparations? Bartlett makes the suggestion in Wrong on Race , an expose on the "hidden" racist history of the Democratic Party. Bartlett skewers former Democratic presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Woo...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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