Red Letter Day

Today is a special day…a day of hope. I never thought that I would live to see the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. I never thought that I would live to see the parting of the Bamboo Curtain and relations with China normalized either nor did I have a ray of hope that someday North and South Korea would be reunited. Today, Roh Moo-hyun, South Korea's president crossed the Cold War's last frontier on Tuesday in a symbolic walk of reconciliation for talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Il. The official meeting starts tomorrow, Tuesday, October 2^nd. My hopes and prayers are with both parties for they have given me that ray of hope. I still remember the announcement of the Korean Armistice which as it turned out was nothing more than a perpetual cease fire with no peace treaty. I was only five and a half years old at the time. It was a nice summer day, the 26^th of July, 1953…it was a Sunday. There was some sort of gathering at our house. I really don’t remember what kind of gathering it was but it could have been a birthday celebration. One minute everything was calm and the next minute all of the grown ups were hugging one another and smiling. I remember asking my Dad what was going on and he said that the Korean War was over. It was already the 27th in Korea and that is the official date that the Armistice was signed. Then began 54 years of extreme military tension that has not ended to this day. I hope that this visit between the two leaders will finally lead to the end of this Korean War epoch and we can all hug each other and smile once again knowing that this time the Korean War is finally over and done with. Amen!