The book 원점 was recently published in South Korea and has been translated into English. Currently, Korean book and English version, e-book of “원점 / Returning to Origins” are available. Some poems are here, but some others you could find there.
Most poems in section 1 was written immediately after my third near-death experience, and the poems in section 2 was written originally for my first daughter Jina when she was three years old. Now I have another daguther, Grace, and I hope to share with my and other duaghters. Life is not easy at all. Maybe harder to most girls than boys. I hope that these poems give some peace and cheerup.
Both long and short journeys start from origins and return to the origin.
At the age of half-century, I stand again at my starting point, look back on my past origins ahead of another journey, and leave a trace for daughters.
More than 100 people after using a drug – Elixir Sulfanilamide, died.
Sulfanilamide, a drug used to treat streptococcal infections with dramatic curative effects, and safely used in tablet and powder form. In June 1937, S.E. Massengill Co., in Bristol, Tenn., manufactured the drug in liquid form with diethylene glycol. No toxicity and pharmacological studies had been done on the new sulfanilamide preparation. Diethylene glycol (antifreeze) is a deadly poison.
On Oct 11, 1937, the American Medical Association (AMA) received incidental report from physician in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that an unfamiliar sulfanilamide compound was responsible for a number of deaths, and AMA laboratory isolated diethylene glycol as the toxic ingredient and immediately issued a warning through newspapers, and radio that Exlixir Sulfanilamide was toxic.
Next year 1938, FDA set out to make sure all of the drug was retrieved. 239 FDA inspectors and chemists was assigned to the task, and state and local health officials joined the search, and newspapers and radio stations continued to issue warnings.
Chaos
In some drug stores, the elixir had been sold without prescriptions to purchasers whose names the druggiest did not know. In other cases, doctors had incomplete records, or none at all- of the names and address of patients for whom they had prescribed. Even one East St. Louise woman told an inspector she had destroyed the drug. The inspector persisted in his questions how did she destroy. Her answer was that she had thrown the bottle out the window into an alley. The inspector found the bottle still unbroken, still containing enough elixir to kill any child.
A South Carolina doctor told an inspector that he had dispensed the medicine, but none had died, but the inspector found all his patients had died after taking the elixir.
Of 240 gallons manufactured and distributed, 234 gallons and 1 pint was retried.
Victims
Many of them were kids, treated for sore throats. All exhibited similar characteristic of failed kidney, stoppage of urine, abdominal pain, nausea, vomitting, stupor, convulsions.
However, the firm was not illegal, because in 1937, the law did not prohibit the sale of dangerous, untested, or poisonous dugs. Dr. Samual Evans Massengill, the firm’s owner said: My chemists and I deeply regret the fatal results, but there was no error in the manufacture of the product. We have been supplying a legitimate professional demand and not once could have foreseen the unlooked-for results. I do not feel that there was any responsibility on our part.” The Chief Chemist, Harold Watkins committed suicide after learning of the effects of his latest concoction.
1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
FDA Commissioner Walter Campbell pressed for better federal regulation of drugs, and pointed out how the inadequacy of the law had contributed to the disaster.
The Elixir disaster hastened enactment of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. New Drug section, added to prevent such tragedies, gave the US a new system of drug control which provided superior protection and 25 years later, this Act saved the Nation from an even greater global drug tragedy— a thalidomide disaster
In the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, requires perform animal safety tests.
However, currently, that requirement, especially cosmetics is not mandatory, if the company provides an evidence of the safety
Reference: Carol Ballentine, FDA consumer magazine, June 1981 Issue
June 15 2024, The original writing was written in my wonderful English class (EngL100) at MiraCosta college.
Prologue
I was a little hesitant about which texts to choose between Reflections of a 17-year-old by Sylvia Plath (excerpt from journal) and A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan (song). Regardless of the warning not to choose A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall if you do not have enough knowledge of music composition and terminology, I could not avoid choosing A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall for my choice to analyze it when I listened to the music piece. I definitely heard the name of Bob Dylan, but I never knew the details about him, or heard any of his music pieces so far. However, I felt I knew his melody when I listened to it. The first feeling of the song A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall was warning, gloomy, and even horrible. The music raised me the images of the animation, Princess Monnonoke. Princess Monnonoke is a 1997 Japanese film.
Introduction
Bob Dylan who composed a Hard Rains a-Gonna Fall is an American singer and songwriter. He is one of the best-selling musicians and a Nobel Prize winner in literature. His first debut album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963), was a big hit, and he (age 83) is still running a music festival tour (Wiki). The topic and motif of his rock and roll’s lyrics in his songs are understood as part of the Civil Rights Movement. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall was written in 1962 and recorded in 1963 (Wiki) when his age was 21 and 22. The themes of the song are series of images as arranged: dead forests and oceans (environment, pollution), orphanages, no people, no communication, a lost innocent and conscientious young generation, a destroyed blue-eyes’ world, no attention to others, individualism, hatred and a warning to escape or fight against these coming hard rains. However, these themes have values in all ages even of Noah’s time and even today. The year 1960s , when this song released, summarized as the most tumultuous and divisive decade in world history, marked by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and antiwar protests, countercultural movements, political and generation gaps, and the lyric of the song encapsulates the view of the times. The lyrics of the song are a part of his society, America and world young generation of 1960s as much as his personal growth development.
The lyrics of A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
1 Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? 2 And where have you been, my darling young one?
3 I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains, 4 I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways, 5 I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests, 6 I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans, 7 I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard. 8 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
9 Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son? 10 Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
11 I saw a new born baby with wild wolves all around it, 12 I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it, 13 I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping,
14 I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding, 15 I saw a white ladder all covered with water, 16 I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken, 17 I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children. 18 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
19 And what did you hear, my blue eyed son? 20 And what did you hear, my darling young one?
21 I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warning, 22 Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world, 23 Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing, 24 Heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening, 25 Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing, 26 Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter, 27 Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley, 28 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
29 And who did you meet, my blue eyed son? 30 And who did you meet, my darling young one?
31 I met a young child beside a dead pony, 32 I met a white man, who walked a black dog, 33 I met a woman, whose body was burning, 34 I met a young girl; she gave me a rainbow, 35 I met one man, who was wounded in love, 36 I met another man, who was wounded with hatred. 37 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
38 Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue eyed son? 39 Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
40 I’m going back out ‘fore the rain starts a-falling, 41 I’ll walk to the depth of the deepest black forest, 42 Where the people are many and their hands are all empty, 43 Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters, 44 Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison, 45 Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden, 46 Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten, 47 Where black is the color, where none is the number, 48 And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breath it, 49 Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking, 50 But I’ll know my song well before I start singing, 51 And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
The subject of this song, who is, was, or will be responsible for or in charge of this gloomy and unsatisfied world, is “blue-eyed son”. Blue-eyed son means the American White young healthy generation or Bob Dylon himself. This song is asking for the current or future responsibility of the blue-eyed son to avoid or fight against the coming hard rains. Hard rains are catastrophe like the Great Flood, a kind of God’s punishment
Let’s move and see the repeated below lyrics in this song. The current chaotic world was caused by the absence of the blue-eyed son (young, healthy white responsible generation) or his darling young generation, and this song is asking them/blue-eyed son/daring young generation to see the current political chaos, hatred, industrialization, and deprived environment, and this song is again asking or even encouraging the young generation’s proper or right action to escape the bigger catastrophe.
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
Oh, whatdid you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
And whatdid you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
Let’s check another repetition of phrases after different part of lyrics below. This is Emphasis and Soliloquy of this poem. The expression in this short-repeated phrases, has Symbolism, Tone, Mood, Satire, Imagery and Colloquialism in techniques.
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
In the phrase, it’s hard is repeated again, emphasizing that the coming rain is greatly hard and destroying. A hard rain is like the Great rain that sins the whole world.
Let’s move on the other parts of the lyrics. The other parts have Irony, Metonym and Synecdoche as well as techniques of Soliloquy, Symbolism, Tone, Mood, Satire, Imagery and Colloquialism. The first part (lines 3-7 indicated above) of the song describes a sad and deadly world: twelve misty mountains, six crooked highways, seven sad forests, dozen dead oceans, and ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard. What numbers (12, 6 and 7) means? Bob Dylan surely has the exact meaning of the numbers although others are not easy to know. The number 12 is our world of mountains and oceans that are misty and dead. The number 6 is men-made roads that are crooked. The number 7 is the forest that is sad. What 7 forests mean exactly. 7 continents or 7 kings. 7 seems be somehow 7 authorities located or connected between crooked highways (men) and mountains and oceans (world). The second part (lines 11-17) describes: new bone baby, new young generation is around wild wolves, describing “threatened by the old generation, notion, environment, politics etc”. The wild wolves might mean the old generation, notion, environmental deprivation, political injustice. There is another highway of diamond, where nobody is, and while latter maybe from the dead ocean, but covered. Dead forest continues described as blood dripping branches that men made. The men want to talk but the talkers could not talk because they do not have tongues. Young children have guns and swords, marching toward graveyards. Words of diamonds, hammers-a-bleeding, white ladder, tongues, guns, sword, hands, young children are Symbolism and Synecdoche. The most of these words transfer horrible mood but diamonds and white ladder are hints of hopes that this destroying world has inside, even although they are invisible and covered. The third part (lines 21-27) of the song is a kind of warning, but nobody could listen to or notice the warning, because they could not even hear others near them. Poets died and clowns cried. Many people laughing and one person starves. The fourth part (lines 31-36) described broken hearted individuals: young child with dead pony, white man with black dog, burning women. They are all like ghosts and wounded. but there is still hope described as a rainbow that a young girl has. The last part (lines 40-50) is resolution and shouting, even losing the war to fight against hard rains. This is a declaration against the older or existent generation or even himself, or he is still outside the his life and real world, showing his resolution that Bob Dylon wants to walk into dark black forest, even he wants to go deep into the black darkness with his free will or warm heart, but he wishes he would go back out of the forest before the rain. Let’s see the bellowed lyrics. The lyrics is beautiful sounding of soul full of resolution and confidence.
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
In summary, this is a sad song of accusation, warning, and declaration, but it calls for the hope of a rainbow. This lyrics is sad but not weak, and sounds strong and full of confidence, showing resolution against the world around him.
by Handaesu ((lyric is different, but sounding is similar to the song A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall), more songs by Minki Kim (who is recognized as a Korean Bob Dylan), and Taechun Jeong. All of these songs are beautiful, and evoke lingering emotions from our hearts and ask for a kind of justice and community happiness, although the melody is simple and repetitive. Furthermore, these songs represent a kind of young generation, development or growth from kids to the adults, start seeing or realizing the imperfect world around themselves.
July 11 2024, The original writing was written in my wonderful English class at MiraCosta college.
Religious education requirement in the USA and current situation of Disney films as an instrument of intercultural moral and spiritual education
SooYoung Kim
This essay is personal opinion and not based on research and expertise views.
America is one of the countries that empathize cultural and individual diversities, However, America is a Christian country, so America has a kind of paradoxical situation between religious uniformity and cultural diversity. Paradoxically, there is no religious diversity in the USA, with a percentage of over 58% Christianity although the immigrants are from all other different countries. The cultural and sociological systems do not support any religious activities, and school system has no religion education. According to the first Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of religion is guaranteed, and the school system is separated from any religion education and practices. It is believed or considered that religion is a personal one and should be taken from family. There are many immigrants from all over the world coming to the USA. When they step into the USA, they easily adapt to the USA religious uniformity and start attending Christian Church, maybe due to the convenience of easy-to-find Christian churches, and obtain support from them or teach any kind of religion to their next generation easily, not insisting on the old religion practice. Thus, despite of the diverse immigrants the USA is still a region of uniform Christianity.
There is a kind of opposite society where there are almost no immigrants, but quite a diverse and dynamic religion mixture. Korea has passed Shamanism over 4,000 years and Buddhism over 2,500 years, and the Last Kingdom Joseon dynasty was established with Confucianism as a moral system. During the late Joseon dynasty, Christianity was imported to Korea, and currently Christianity has become a dominant religion type in South Korea. But South Korea sociology allows religious internal, social, cultural, inter-family diversity and freedom, and they are tolerating to any religion. However, Christianity in South Korea might be different from any other countries because Christianity in South Korea could be a mixture with other religion backgrounds, such as Buddhism and a moral system, Confucianism. It is meant that religion is not separated from society and any religions keeps changing with peoples. Furthermore, there are similarity between Christianity and traditional morality of Korea: Men lead families, wives serve husband’s leadership, and kids obey to their parents. The similarity is one reason that peoples was easy to change their religions.
There are crisis and big problems in the current USA educational system, because the most families in the USA do not transfer any religious practice to their next generation, losing their function, and the next generation could not have any religious experiences. Most children do not adhere to any specific religious beliefs that are exemplified by their parents. Religious practices and learning are part of moral education and the deepest roots of harmony with oneself and others. Many Asian countries have moral classes, and the UK included religion education in the 1988 Education Reform Act to reflect the multiculturalist policy. It has taught big six religions-Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism- but is currently expanding to teach more diverse world religions, and at the same time non-religion, and other moral philosophies that are sociological structure (Shaw). Some countries are more easily accessible to different religious services with friends, and even kid alone, but in the USA, if parents reject attending any religious community, the children are very unlikely to be exposed to any religious system. The educational system does not need to teach religious practice and faith but could teach religious core and historical and broad common views of religion, nurture moral and spiritual sense, and promote religious diversity as well as cultural diversity. There are some comments from UK pupil and teachers for the need of religion education (Shaw).
“We live in a country with loads of different religions and I think we should learn about each different one, so if you do come across them, you know what they’re on about, and you know who they are” (Pupil)
“Obviously you cannot look at them all, but I think it’s important to look at how people have beliefs but they may not be within a formal religion” (Parent)
“I think they (non-religious worldviews) are just as important to learn as like Christianity because it’s still a form of belief” (Pupil)
“I’d want them [pupil] to think more broadly about what we class as religion too. There are people that dance round Stonebenge naked because the sun’s up. Does that fall under the remit? Definitely it does of spirituality.” (Teacher)
“I think religion lives and breathes, it’s the same with language, it’s eternally changing. We should teach it as that” (Teacher)
“We need to learn about how religion mixes into politics” (Pupil)
The above article shows the learners’ desire for learning about a broader range of religions and an understanding of religion, belief, and interrelationship with society. This is UK schools’ example, but it would be not quite different in other countries. Even atheists would want to learn about more religion. Even If there is a desire to know all kinds of religion, it is not easy for one person to learn and understand even one kind of religion. Thus is another reason for us to give religion education in the school system. Also, there are core similarities among religions and differences that have aroused wars and even current. As global citizens, the next generation need to be prepared for global diversity including religion.
In the USA, Disney film play a role to teach religion core, spirituality and engaging kids to learn morality. Kids have natural empathy, imagination, and natural animisms to give life to non-alive items (Wonderly). The kids’ spirituality might be something important located before any religion system, and Disney is teaching such spirituality via kids’ animation. The first generation of Disney animation, such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, does not, but Disney animation started to adapt or generate the USA or global common shared spiritual mindsets regardless that they have different religions and no religion at all. See Disney animation of Mulan, Pocahontas, Ariel of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and beast, Moana, Frozen, Elements and If. Although Disney provides common spiritual moral learning and film is a great tool for an educational tool (Wonderly), it has limitation and could not teach exact meaning and could be mis-conceptualized, it might be the proper time that the school system in the USA provides religion diversity education, global religion view, and political understanding of religion as well as core religious spirituality.
Reference
Shaw, Martha, “New Representations of Religion and Belief in Schools”, Religions 2018, 9, 364, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9110364
Wonderly, Monique, “Children’s Film as an Instrument of Moral Education”, Journal of Moral Education, 2009, 38, 1, 1-15
Life and Biology stories with Sooyoung and Others 