Learning Peace in Korea

Park Kyoung

By Park Kyoung

I woke up thinking I heard thunder on Sept. 11 in 2001. It wasn’t until my roommate told me to turn on the TV that I realized what was happening outside. I had mistaken thunder for the sounds of the second plane crashing into the Twin Towers. I was then a sophomore student at New York University (NYU) living in a dormitory in Chinatown, blocks away from Ground Zero.

The streets were chaotic and people were stunned _ I had never seen anything like that morning before. Canal Street was blocked as the towers were burning and I no longer had access to my home. I stayed with my best friend from Chile on Houston Street, watching the news.

We wondered how such atrocities could be happening in New York City. Being Chilean, we also couldn’t avoid reflecting on the similarities between the terrorist attacks and the Chilean military coup on Sept. 11 in 1973.

After the attacks, people gathered in public spaces to mourn. There were community vigils, candles, street art, and messages of goodwill all over downtown Manhattan.

However, as the United States proceeded to bomb Afghanistan and invade Iraq, it became clear that 9/11 had catalyzed a new war in which we were no longer the victims.

Massive demonstrations followed. Among tens of thousands of anti-war protestors, I realized how many of us do indeed object to war.

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in dramatic writing from NYU in 2003 and lived in the city until 2005. Despite my growing career in the New York Off and Off-Off Broadway theater scene, I decided to take a hiatus from playwriting and study peace in Korea.

People looked at me perplexedly _ they asked, ``You can learn that?’’

Having finished the final draft of my master’s thesis, I can firmly respond: ``Yes, peace can be taught and more importantly, it can be learned.’’ I was one of the selected few who receive full scholarships at Kyung Hee University’s Graduate Institute of Peace Studies to study peace at a graduate level.

My peers are people who have worked to help others all over the world _ my best friends completed internships at the UN Headquarters, Organization of American States in Bolivia, UNESCO in Lebanon, etc. Others have done social work in developing countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, or assisted the growing community of migrant workers seeking better lives in Korea. Being a mere writer, I am humbled everyday by my peers’ accomplishments and moral virtue.

For two years I researched 9/11 and the war on terror. Writing my thesis was a painful process; reviewing old newspaper scraps, remembering the tragic events and their aftermath and trying to resolve one of the world’s greatest military conflicts, I have challenged myself to reconsider everything I know about life, freedom and justice. This is when I realize the depth of meaning and significance of our motto: ``Peace is greater than victory.’’

With a scholarship from Kyung Hee University’s Global Academy of Neo-Renaissance, I traveled to New York City and Washington D.C. to interview family and friends of 9/11 victims, peace advocates and not-for-profit organizations dealing with issues that related to 9/11.

I have met fathers who lost sons, brothers who lost brothers, wives who lost husbands and children who no longer have parents due to 9/11. Their desire to not only heal but grow from this tragic experience to promote compassion and world peace helped me to experience a solidarity that transcends political, economic and social divides. After my field study, it dawned upon me that peace is a true vision of humanity.

The conclusion of my thesis is the favorable legitimization of peace and nonviolent norms in the United States. Organizations such as 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, United for Peace and Justice and The Peace Alliance strive to create peace at a local, national, and international level _ even proposing the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace and Non-Violence.

kyounghpark@gmail.com

Park Kyoung is a Korean-Chilean graduate student at Graduate Institute of Peace Studies of Kyung Hee University.

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