Euna Lee & Laura Ling

[Trien Chieu]

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Euna Lee.............................................. Laura Ling

They are the two american journalists got arrested by North Korea and sentenced to 12 years in labor camp. While I agree that they shouldn't get the harsh sentence but at the same time I think they should know better. They should know the potential consequence of entering North Korea, a place that do not welcome them. They shouldn't take the risk.

[Ken Cheng]

For the sake of change, risks are often unavoidable.

[Trien Chieu]

For the sake of change, risks are often unavoidable.

Change??
What change can the two powerless journalists make?
Don't tell me the world doesn't know the chaotic condition of North Korea.

[Ken Cheng]

Change??
What change can the two powerless journalists make?

They aren't going to make it alone, but a thousand-mile journey begins with one step.

The forgotten prehistoric human who discovered fire would never reach the moon. Nor would his son...nor his son's son. But had he not discovered fire, would Neil Armstrong have finally walked on the moon in 1969?

Don't tell me the world doesn't know the chaotic condition of North Korea.

You'd be surprised how ignorant and insular people can be until the reality is right in their faces.

[Trien Chieu]

They aren't going to make it alone, but a thousand-mile journey begins with one step.

The forgotten prehistoric human who discovered fire would never reach the moon. Nor would his son...nor his son's son. But had he not discovered fire, would Neil Armstrong have finally walked on the moon in 1969?

You'd be surprised how ignorant and insular people can be until the reality is right in their faces.

Ken, seriously, deep down your heart, do you really believe that these two journalists can make a difference to people of North Korea? Do you really believe that they can change Kim Jon Il or the North Korean government to free the people of North Korea? By the way, I am not a fan of Kim Jon Il and I do think he is evil, but I don't think these two powerless journalists can make any difference. They just put themselves in a dangerous situation. As journalists, they should know where they can go and where they can't for doing documentary.

[Ken Cheng]

You're missing the point.

The point of contention is not that Euna Lee and Laura Ling will instantly catalyze the overthrow of the North Korean dictatorship. Of course they won't. The importance of their work, however, is the matter of principle that it represents...the bedrock principles that underlie freedom's ongoing struggle (and hopefully, eventual victory) over tyranny.

In the U.S. Bill of Rights, it is not arbitrary that the First Amendment covers freedom of speech/press and the Second Amendment covers the right to bear arms. Why did the Founders of the U.S. place these two considerations first in the Bill of Rights? It's because these two freedoms are the key, indispensable weapons for safeguarding a free society against tyranny. You will always need ideas, words, and unfortunately, sometimes, guns too.

But notice: words are more important than guns. Words are covered by the First Amendment; guns are covered by the Second. Not every revolution will require the use of guns, but no revolution has EVER succeeded without words and the ideas behind them.

Every authoritarian regime in history, including that of North Korea, has considered the greatest threat to their rule to be free thought and free speech, not guns. This is because before any gun is raised against an authoritarian ruler, there must first be the idea of "living under this authoritarian leadership is bad. Perhaps we should overthrow it." Sometimes, revolutions can happen without guns (witness the changes in South Africa and in Eastern Europe during the end of the 1980s, to say nothing of Mohandas Gandhi's peaceful revolution in India and Martin Luther King Jr.'s bloodless struggle for civil rights in the U.S.), but without the free exchange of ideas, revolution can never happen.

The nature of authoritarian regimes, however, is to suppress information. The free flow of information is not good for authoritarians. This is why Euna Lee and Laura Ling are now imprisoned in North Korea. In most cases, the authoritarian regime must take steps to suppress information.

But what would really empower and embolden an authoritarian regime is if people are too cowardly or too passive to care. If every person were to think, "Oh, it's too dangerous to try to obtain and distribute information from this authoritarian regime! I could be imprisoned or killed," then authoritarians would never need to worry. They would scarcely need to put any effort into maintaining their hold on power because the people's own lack of courage and lack of will to act upon it by learning and sharing knowledge would make such an effort unnecessary. Any potential revolution would have no engine to run it.

When people think of the overthrow of authoritarian regimes, they think of a few great revolutionary leaders...your Thomas Jeffersons and Sun Yat-Sens and Nelson Mandelas. What's forgotten is that before any of these great leaders could build a revolution, journalists, thinkers, and writers spent many years putting themselves at great risk and sometimes, sacrificing greatly of themselves to deliver the information needed to fuel those revolutions. Often, their work went uncredited and their roles obscured by the more immediate manifestations of change, but be sure that every revolutionary change in history was preceded by a multifaceted, sustained information assault. Without journalists taking great personal risks to challenge the status quo, this cannot happen.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling will not overthrow the government of Kim Il-Jong. They are not the first journalists to have been suppressed by the North Korean regime, and they will not be the last. If there comes a day when we see the overthrow of the North Korean dictatorship, however, it will be largely because many, many journalists would not let the world forget or overlook the oppression perpetrated by that regime.

The best way to support an authoritarian regime is to know and say nothing about it. Nothing empowers tyranny more than the implied consent of silence.

[Trien Chieu]

When people think of the overthrow of authoritarian regimes, they think of a few great revolutionary leaders...your Thomas Jeffersons and Sun Yat-Sens and Nelson Mandelas. What's forgotten is that before any of these great leaders could build a revolution, journalists, thinkers, and writers spent many years putting themselves at great risk and sometimes, sacrificing greatly of themselves to deliver the information needed to fuel those revolutions. Often, their work went uncredited and their roles obscured by the more immediate manifestations of change, but be sure that every revolutionary change in history was preceded by a multifaceted, sustained information assault. Without journalists taking great personal risks to challenge the status quo, this cannot happen.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling will not overthrow the government of Kim Il-Jong. They are not the first journalists to have been suppressed by the North Korean regime, and they will not be the last. If there comes a day when we see the overthrow of the North Korean dictatorship, however, it will be largely because many, many journalists would not let the world forget or overlook the oppression perpetrated by that regime.

The best way to support an authoritarian regime is to know and say nothing about it. Nothing empowers tyranny more than the implied consent of silence.

Ken, I think you are right but most people, including myself, would never want to put themself in that situation. Most people would stay silent about injustice such as genocide from countries that far away from them.

[Ken Cheng]

Ken, I think you are right but most people, including myself, would never want to put themself in that situation. Most people would stay silent about injustice such as genocide from countries that far away from them.

Someone has to do it, Trien, or the bad guys win.

If you ask me, personally, if I could do it, I'd have to say "probably not." But the funny thing about people is that they don't know what they're capable of until they're tested. Sometimes, people surprise themselves by being better than they think are.

Rising to the occasion is what the heroic spirit is all about. Humankind would not have come as far as it has without it, and it's not reserved for those folks whose names are familiar to all.

[Guo Xiang]

They have been freed, thanks to Bill Clinton. I'm glad Clinton and the US government didn't have the sitting duck mentality.

[Ken Cheng]

President Clinton got them free, but I wonder what Mr. Clinton had to promise the North Korean government in exchange for the two women's freedom.

I like the fact that the two journalists are free and will be reunited with their families, but I sure hope the U.S. didn't concede much to that ridiculous dictatorship in North Korea.

[Dennis Chen]

They need to be fired by their company for terminal stupidity and breaking the laws of a sovereign nation.

Then, they need to be fined for compromising our national security.

[Guo Xiang]

They need to be fired by their company for terminal stupidity and breaking the laws of a sovereign nation.

Then, they need to be fined for compromising our national security.

Really? If the law-breaking part is true, is there not the possibility of them perhaps doing as they were told/ordered by the higher-up people? National security might have been compromised, but so are their lives.

Unless you think they are suicidal, that is.

Why clamp down on them so fast?

[oGaKirA]

They need to be fired by their company for terminal stupidity and breaking the laws of a sovereign nation.

Then, they need to be fined for compromising our national security.

I tend to agree with you.

Really? If the law-breaking part is true, is there not the possibility of them perhaps doing as they were told/ordered by the higher-up people? National security might have been compromised, but so are their lives.

Unless you think they are suicidal, that is.

Why clamp down on them so fast?

More than likely, they were getting paid the BIG bucks to do it.

[Dennis Chen]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_nkorea_journalists_held

Yeah, they were guilty.

[Trien Chieu]

They need to be fired by their company for terminal stupidity and breaking the laws of a sovereign nation.

Then, they need to be fined for compromising our national security.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_nkorea_journalists_held

Yeah, they were guilty.

National security should not be compromised for the well being of the two law breakers. Shame on the Clinton and the democrat party if they concede to the north korea just to save those two law breakers arse. Those two journalists crossed the boarder illegally, they deserve to be punished by the law of the land.

[Trien Chieu]

Double post

[Dennis Chen]

Now the Lings are writing a book. Do something stupid, go to jail and jeopardize our national security and get rich.

[oGaKirA]

I dont think they were doing something stupid. I think they were actually trying to spy and got caught. Think about it!