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Juxtaposed on
opposite pages of the BBC International newspaper were two stories:
"..thousands of people (in Seoul, South Korea) protesting against
resumption of U.S. beef imports..." and "The U.S. announced
that it will send half a million tons of food aid to North Korea."
How can two so
closely connected groups of people hold such strong opposite opinions
about the safety of U.S. food exports? Easy. It’s the haves vs. the
have-nots. South Korea is a strong democratic nation, our ally, who owes
its existence to the U.S. and the United Nations. It has the luxury to
be choosey. Their protest against American beef, as stated, is the fear
of B.S.E. but is really to protect their highly subsidized isolationist
agricultural trade policy. That’s not a crime but they should not hide
behind food safety as a reason.
Whereas North
Korea, an oppressed country led by a dictator, lost an estimated one
million people to starvation in the 90s and is facing another famine.
The government has nuclear weapon intentions, a cruel disregard for its
own people and has been threatening invasion against South Korea since
we pushed them back in 1951. 33,000 American soldiers died protecting
South Korea.
So the question
that bubbles up like acid indigestion in many of us when we hear South
Koreans shouting, "We don’t need U.S. troops and we don’t need
U.S. Mad Cows!" is, ‘Why did we help the ingrates in the first
place?’
Four days after
Sadaam’s statue was pulled down in Baghdad, there were anti-U.S.
Iraqis protesting. I realize now they were Sadaam’s cronies, but
still. When the French politicians curse us, the British press demeans
us and our closest friends, the Canadians, accuse the USDA of conspiracy
to falsify our B.S.E. findings...it all hurts.
So much of our
blood and our wealth have been spent protecting freedom on this planet.
One cannot imagine a world today if the U.S. had refused to intervene
— Paris would be a German suburb, South Korea would be a Japanese or
Communist slave state, and Abu Ghraib would still be the real torture
chamber it once was under Sadaam.
Why is such a
powerful country, the United States of America, so generous in spite of
such deliberate insults and bashings? In my opinion it is directly
related to the strong religious beliefs of our founding fathers, in
which we still abide.
We do not do good
deeds to ‘show off.’ We help the downtrodden, be it the homeless in
San Francisco or the starving in North Korea, because Christ said, as
you do for the least of these my brethren, you do unto me (Matthew
25:40). And we turn the other cheek to the ‘What have you done for me
lately,’ because we are directed to show forgiveness and mercy to all
who offend.
It is the
embodiment of God’s grace. And the saving grace for all the Frances,
South Koreas and Iraqs of the world who are free people today because
America believes. |
