Patronize Korean businesses whenever possible!

My minister reports that the local Korean population, which predominates in our neighborhood, has been averting its collective gaze from him, and generally acting as though they are somehow to blame for Seung Cho and VT. :(

I was explaining this to Mom on Sunday, and she came up with this: Go to Korean businesses when possible, as a gesture of solidarity. In most major metropolitan areas, and many college towns, this would be easier than you might think. Often there will be a whole shopping center filled with Korean businesses, like the one down the block from me that has a Korean market, a Kumon school-prep knockoff, even a UPS Store that specializes in shipping stuff back to South Korea! And Korean restaurants, at least here, tend to feature haole-friendly things like kal bi (ribs), bul go gi (BBQ beef), and fried mandoo ("potsticker" dumplings), though kim chee (pickled cabbage) is an acquired taste.

... however, my upstairs neighbor who is an anti-social obnoxious chemistry geek who happens to be of Korean descent doesn't deserve my 'solidarity' just because someone else of his ethnic heritage did something horrid.

He's still an ass who booms his home theatre to ridiculously loud levels at all hours - despite having the complex's management & the cops called several times over the last 6 months - and I'm not going to give him a pass out of a false sense of guilt or whatever.

No? Then you're off the hook. :-)

... another reason to dislike him. ;)

(who owned a construction biz--a "family" business where he didn't have to follow hiring regs--and surprise, surprise, an ENORMOUS number of that family were apparently Guatemalan!!!) used to get stinking drunk every weekend and beat the living shit out of his wife, sometimes on the front lawn. Occasionally, a weapon would be brandished. The neighbors all took turns calling the cops. The guy could see them coming, though (we lived on a hill) and he'd "go for a walk " (we had lots of woods in the area as well) and wife and grandma would play the "no speekee english" game for hours until the cops got called away to another weekend knife fight, brawl, drunken bit of vandalism or what-have-you.

The cops knew the deal--we'd take our phones out on the porches and give them the very loud and dramatic audio effects. It was unnerving, to say the least, and hideous. They couldn't prosecute because the family would NOT talk. Itwould happen at least twice a month, more often than that, usually (if they were off to an event with other family in the area, we would have a night of merciful quiet).

I'm glad I don't live there anymore. The guy managed to fuck up a nice, richly diverse neighborhood of really nice people from all corners of the globe who weren't wife beating drunks. He was, and near as I can tell from the few folks I keep in touch with, still is, the "neighbor from hell."

I take people as I find them. I'm not gonna be nice to people "just because" they are a particular race or ethnicity.

I'm nice to people until they give me a reason to dislike them.

According to an ex-girlfriend of mine (daughter of S.Korean ministers, living here in the U.S.), pastors are sometimes "blamed" or otherwise ill-treated by the Korean community when bad things in life happen.

as am I, and the great majority of our tiny congregation. We just happen to be located in the main Korean section of town. Would this blame thing extend to non-Korean pastors as well?

in eastern cultures (and this is a general statement) there is a collective shame to this.