Empathy holds the key to overcoming tragedy
Published: 06 Nov. 2022, 19:28
The author is a political news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.
In 2001, former president Kim Dae-jung designated September 14, three days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, as a “Day of Condolence” to remember the 2,977 victims, which included Koreans. Government offices and schools across the country raised flags at half-mast, and a siren sounded at 10 a.m. for one minute of silence.
There have been major disasters that resulted in hundreds of casualties, including the bombing of a KAL airplane in 1987, the collapse of Sampung Department Store in 1994, and the Seongsu Bridge collapse in 1995. But the government did not designate a date or period for mourning.
Then, when the Cheonan warship sank in April 2010, the Lee Myung-bak government designated a five-day naval funeral period as a “national mourning period” and the day of the funeral ceremony as a “national day of condolence.” The national mood of mourning encouraged during the “national funerals” in the past was applied to the unexpected military tragedy. When a current or former president dies, the current law designates a funeral period of up to five days. At the time of the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014, former president Park Geun-hye ordered the “establishment of discipline in public society,” but did not declare a separate period of mourning.
As precedents are inconsistent, some people were not sure “what to do in daily life and what not to” during the mourning period (Oct. 30 to Nov. 5) of the Halloween disaster in Itaewon. Various online communities had posts such as “Can we have a company outing during the national mourning period?” or “Are performances and television shows on as scheduled?” or “Are school trips canceled?”
But there is no law stipulating the scope of activities for the general public. At the time of the Cheonan incident, the government ordered local governments and public agencies to wear simple clothes and black ribbons, refrain from social events (simplify them if unavoidable), and raise flags at half-mast. The current government sent similar instructions to local governments.
Over the mourning period, some dispute, “Is it right to dedicate as many as seven days?” or “It is different from the death of soldiers in battle?” I’d like to share a passage from a letter written by French journalist Antoine Leiris, who lost his wife in the 2015 Paris terrorist attack that led to 130 deaths, to the terrorists. “I will not grant you the gift of my hatred. You’re asking for it, but responding to hatred with anger is falling victim to the same ignorance that has made you what you are.”
Empathy and consideration, not dispute and hatred, are the only keys to truly overcoming tragedy.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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