originally, i had an article by pat buchanan up for everyone to read...  i've decided, however, i should try to put  more joy and peace out into the world rather than cut&paste messages of hate, even if it's only to say how angry i am at him and people who feel like it's okay to just say the awful things they do.  for those who need more fuel for your anger (you know who you are), check out:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=the_dark_side_of_diversity&ns=PatrickJBuchanan&dt=05/01/2007&page=1
it just makes me want to cry. and then beat him up!
and it really makes me wonder: how on earth am i'm supposed to live out God's call to love my enemy? how??
Lord, have mercy on us all.

(for posts of a more postively pleasant fasion, see below...)

Triennium Design Team Meeting:

Feast of the Resurrection: 


70's Dance Party:

 
sometimes, it's nice to be silly...

mike's 26 today! woo hoo~
i'm going out of town this saturday, so we celebrated friday nite.  1st) BodyWorlds exhibit; 2nd) Japonais for dinner and drinks (yummy!)

 
also, the next Batman movie has started shooting in Chicago- here's a picture of the Gotham City National Bank:

and finally, if you zoom in on pictures of me, you may see a gash and bump across the top of my nose.  that's from the trunk of mike's car.  i was leaning in to put things in, and the trunk came crashing down on me. it hurt. and now, i'm deformed. mike says it'll be like owen wilson's nose...

An article for the Herald, McCormick's student newspaper:

I read the news of the Virginia Tech shootings right before
I went to bed Monday night. Saddened and troubled by the report, I said a
prayer for the students and the families of those who were lost before climbing
into bed and cuddling with Bailey.  It is indeed a horrible tragedy.
 But I don't write today to report what the media is already all over.

Tuesday morning before Greek, my dad wakes me up with a phone call.
The following is our conversation, half in Korean, half in groggy English.
"Are you in class?" he asks.
"No," I reply, "I don't have class until 9:30."
"Good.  Maybe you should stay home today."
"What? Why? Is something wrong?" I asked, scared that something had
happened them.
"Well, it's just that the student involved in the shootings at Virginia
Tech was Korean.  We hear there's been some backlash against the Korean
students there. They've got police and everything watching them just in case.
 I don't want people at your school being mad at you."
"WHAT? No, appa, people aren't
like that at my school.  Don't worry. 
We only have, like, 200 students, and they love Koreans.  I'll be
fine.  I'll call you later.  Love you."

Usually after a ridiculous phone call with my parents, I get mad at them.
 But this morning, I was mad that we lived in a society where they would
have reasons to actually worry about something so absurd.

You see, my dad doesn't seem to be the only one concerned: 

"In Manhattan's
Koreatown, near midtown, yesterday afternoon several Koreans and
Korean-Americans said they felt a sense of dread on top of the shock everyone
shared.
Rojan Lee, 20, of Sunnyside, said she remembered reports of hate crimes against
Muslims after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It crossed her mind, she said,
that "there might be some sort of backlash" against Asians, too."[1]

In this country, when a horrible event is caused by an
individual who also happens to be a minority, that person seems to become
representative of that entire racial or ethnic group.  

And yet, as McCormick super senior Hardy points out, after
Columbine, no one was worried about backlash against white Americans.  The rest of this country didn't view those
boys as representative of the entire race, but as individuals, the "exceptions
to the norm."

And so, almost inadvertently, because our society seems to
group me with Cho Seung-Hui anyway, my thoughts turn to him.  And certain parts of his life resound with
mine.  He came to the states at eight
years old...my brother was eight when our family immigrated.  His parents were in the drycleaning business...my parents are in the drycleaning business. 
He was an English major...I was an English major... He was human...I'm human...

If my theological education has taught me anything, it's to
remember those on the margins, the outcasts, the "other".  And as I grieve for the many victims of this
tragedy and their families, I also grieve for him and his family.  He was troubled, angry, and isolated.  Some may consider him
"the enemy", and I
can't blame anyone for that response.   But as Christians, we are called to love not
only our neighbors but even those we consider the enemy.

it's a busy weekend!  today was jonah's 1st birthday party,
tomorrow morning i'm preaching, then tomorrow night, jonah's getting
baptized! 



here are today's birthday pictures (he looked so cute in his little hanbok!)











*update: more babies! Yvette & Nhien's daughter, Faith, and Jonah's baptism:









p.s. my sermon went just
fine.  after the service mike said i had good "pacing." haha~ i'll
take that as a compliment.  others' responses were pretty positive overall.   one woman came up to me and told me she was very
touched by what i said, and that she had been crying in the pews until
she decided to come up and talk to me.  that was the sweetest response.  preaching... what an amazing task.

pray for me. i'm preaching sunday, april 15.
that is all. thank you.

how is it that i always find myself in situations where all of who i am is constantly being challenged?

perhaps, on a positive note, it's because i allow myself to really listen to people with whom i am different. 
perhaps, on a less positive note, it's because i'm irresolute.

blast! sometimes growth and change and difference are so painful and
confusing.  and yet, without it.... well, there would be no
transformation.

p.s.
we had snow flurries and 30 degree temperatures today here in chicago. is it really april?

Here are some pictures from the worship and march in Washington
D.C.  It was cold, wet, and totally worth joining thousands of
Christians to be a witness for peace.

1.    2.    3.    4. 

5.    6.    7.

8.     9. 10.   

11.  12. 13.



1. my new friend Sophie, probably one of the youngest to attend

2. the National Cathedral from the outside

3. insdie the National Cathedral

4. waiting to get inside the Cathedral

5. w/ my roommate, Sarah Henken

6. me & irene inside the National Cathedral

7.  a banner for peace from the methodist church

8. na young, me, and hye young marching

9. on our long walk to lafayette park

10. "siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkos' "

11. w/ jeanne hale!

12. w/ most of the mccormick folk

13. our CPW pins (they glow in the dark~ oohhh....)

please pray for peace around the world, in our homes and in our own hearts.

"A basic fact of nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate ones opponents, but to win their friendship and understanding.  It avoids not only external physical violence, but also internal violence of spirit.  Nonviolent resisters not only refuse to shoot their opponents, they also refuse to hate them." - Martin Luther King Jr.