Written by Paul Moon   

There are very much certain things I care about in N.Y.C. anymore. I care for my former Korean American Catholic Church, St. Paul Chong Ha Sang. I care for the community in Flushing, New York. Despite my anger at the inter-racial and inter-ethnic infighting that happens at the community, it is a vibrant place, if you can afford it. I care for my parents because they live there as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security recipients. I care for my sister, because she chooses to remain in the most economically stratified city in the United States as an underpaid librarian and English instructor at a proprietary school. I care for the public school system.

I chose to leave in disgust. I saw the asinine corporate “educational” programs such as America’s Choice taking a foothold and vice grip on the N.Y.C. educational system because the former N.Y.C. Chancellor Klein wanted to show progress in something. And thus he wanted inexperienced drones “teaching” N.Y.C. students to be like a bunch of army ants passing the standardized exams from the third grade to the 12th grade Regents. But, they have not done so well either. Once the exams are over, students become rowdy and rampant because of the constant drilling they need to go through just to fill in the boxes correctly.

I made a choice not to care about community building because we are always against our collective interests or living in place where the public sector workers are equated as human garbage. I chose not to care when our diverse communities insist on pure power rather taking than cooperative sharing for the greater good. I chose not to care as services were being cut in N.Y.C. Firefighters and the Police despite the need for their services. The Nixon strategy is still well and alive.

I made a choice not to care when my parents have seemingly deserved a better life and have not. They both hold advanced degrees not only from Korea, but from Northwestern and Northeastern universities. My father has a Ph.D. from Northwestern in computer science. And he adores Nixon.

He came in the 1970s, the height of liberalism coming to its wane, but was still able to be a single earner in the household. I saw the quality of life deteriorate in the 1980s growing up, because I had to start working in high school. I was one of the lucky few relying on my intelligence, and love for cigarettes with coffee. Though I must admit, I barely graduated high school. And I had to work through all my education with bouts of depression, anger, and drinking. But, I was very lucky.

It was during my rise through higher education my consciousness rose. Education was my mantra, and my lodestar---The Lost Ark. It just happened. It was my association from my friends at S.U.N.Y. at the College of Old Westbury, C.U.N.Y. Law School, and C.U.N.Y. Queens College that I just wanted to learn more about why was this happening. Once this consciousness raised, you can never go back. Though I worked and studied, and had lost a need for social skills, I studied more understand this world through Howard Zinn and democracynow.org, plus other media outlets such commondreams.org with counterpunch.org. This actually got me more depressed. But, my consciousness is now complete.

So, maybe being a spectacularly unsuccessful Korean American teaching ESL and EFL in South Korea is not so bad. It helped me understand why I do not care about and for the U.S.A. Especially, since its unapologetic stance towards the assassination of Osama.

Their bullying in South Korea is well known. Its also public knowledge that Michael Moore’s movie Sicko has raised Korean consciousness on not to accept the U.S. Health care system. There is also the issue of Jeju Island, one of the most beautiful places on the planet earth being made into a U.S. Naval base. There is also question of South Korea being a leading exporter of nuclear energy.

Korea is not perfect. But it has a sound educational system fostered on insane competition. But students learn to think and behave. There is civility for the most part. And there is a fundamental respect for teaching and education. There is great health care system, so if your hands get cut, you won’t pay life and limbs (as in Sicko) by home foreclosure.

The children do take care of the parents, and have a modicum of civility for such a claustrophobic society. And, in thinking about it, its not so bad---though I still long for falafel. I have health insurance, and make a good salary. And I don’t have to worry about most economical problems. I am well taken care of into my old age with a public pension (Social Security).

Unfortunately, my parents had some of the Social Security cut by $150.00 per month. But, what of my friends and sister, and cousins when the Republicans get their hands on the New Deal system? Will they have a retirement? What if their children are unsafe? What of the future?

I was a N.Y.C. teacher, and knew the Bloomberg system would come to this: the firing and laying off of teachers. Not because of their incompetence, it was because this is the mentality taking place on the attack of everything restricting social and economic mobility. The Democrats are able and willing to be complicit in this corporate takeover of the U.S.A.

Yes, I am a coward for not fighting the U.S.A, because I was tired of systems not cultivating minds, and only non-educated drones, but I can get to protect Koreans from the N.Y.C. system and U.S. Social economical protections from being removed. This Korean president Lee Myung-bak is trying these similar excrement policies now like Scott Walker with President Obama’s face. Its going to be over my dead body.

I do care.