A Legacy Left By A Man For Others

On the 16th of February we remembered the first anniversary of the death of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan. An example of love for country that was bigger than the materialistic and opportunistic values of his time. He had a vision of what should be when many preferred the status quo and were fearful of making waves. Cardinal Kim was an attractive personality to many of the citizens not only Catholics. Love one another, forgive and give thanks were his last words remembered by many during the past year.

Editorial in Catholic paper laments the present situation because of political infighting that prevents the government from taking on serious problems facing Korea. They are occupied with materialism opportunism, pragmatism and local interests that blind them to the larger interests facing the country.

Using the fable monkey's dilemma the editorial compares the problems facing society with the poor monkey who has his fist in a jar of food. The empty hand goes in easily but with food gripped tightly the monkey can't get fist out from the jar's mouth. Monkey either chooses food and loses his freedom or drops the food and lives to begin another day. Government has their hands in the jar and are not able to see that while concerned with those smaller matters they are missing matters of greater importance.

Cardinal Kim gave us a good example of being a Cardinal for all. His coat of arms carried the words "For you and all." His strong position on siding with the poor and the alienated was not missed by many even though the oppression of the times made it easy to forget them.

When one realizes things are not going the way they should and like the monkey one realizes results are not what were desired, it is time to change course and begin again. Party interests , personal grudges, should not be the overwhelming concern of those in government but the serious interests of the people they were elected to serve.