Who would you pick as a Peace maker? Dennis Rodman is NOT the first person you
would think of but he happens to be a good choice.
Rodman recently went to The Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK-North Korea) for a basketball showcase alongside the Harlem Globetrotters.
What’s interesting is that this is not the first time that the Globetrotters go
to a perceived enemy’s country. In 1959
the Harlem Globetrotters went to the Soviet Union to play several games as
well. Rodman, as we all know, has had a
complicated past but nonetheless he is human and he showed his level of
humanity in an interview with George Stephanopoulos:
”Rodman originally drew criticism from Stephanopoulos when he said that
North Korea’s dictator was a good guy, despite the human rights violations.
“I don’t condone that. I hate the fact that he’s doing that. I didn’t
talk about that. I saw people respected him, his family. He’s only 28. He’s not
his dad. He’s not his grandpa. He is 28 years old. He’s very humble. He’s a
very humble man. He don’t want war, that’s one thing he don’t want. He loves
power. He loves control, because of his father, you know, stuff like that. But
he’s just…he’s a great guy. He’s just a great guy. You sit down and talk to
him,” said Rodman.
Stephanopoulos then challenged Rodman, saying he was making excuses for
North Korea’s human rights abuses.
“No, I’m not apologizing for him. He was a great guy to me. He was my
friend. I don’t condone what he does. But as a person to person, he’s my
friend. What I did was history. He’s a friend to me. That’s about it,” said
Rodman.”
If we look at this carefully we see that Rodman has more
sense than George because he is making a clear statement that the leader of
DPRK, Kim Jong Un, is young and is most likely reacting to history rather than
what might be really going on.
Here this
is what I mean, all these years Christians were told that Dec. 25th
is the birth of Christ and as the world grew smaller and information and
research became more attainable to the masses people soon realized that no,
that is not right! Some of us accepted
it and MANY MORE hold on to the lie because that is what they have known their
whole lives.
Kim Jong Un has been
surrounded all his life, most likely, with information that may not be
completely true and I think YOU can relate to that, how you ask? Was there ever any Weapons of Mass
Destruction in Iraq? No there sure wasn’t
but we believed it and I use we loosely.
So what did Rodman see while he was in DPRK? He most likely saw a young head of state that
has a lot of expectations to live up to and is being handled in a way that
forces him to have to react in ways that are not helpful. Wouldn’t it be great if this young man just
ended it all and said ‘screw this lets unite the Korean people and get past
this!’ It would be great but you know what else would be great? If the US would say ‘hey how about we get the
hell out of the world’s way and stop butting into everyone else’s problems and
go back home and build up our own country!’ Now THAT would be a statement to make…the
problem with US policy is that it is very forceful in that it doesn’t allow other
countries to have an opinion.
Are there
horrible acts occurring in the DPRK? Yes
I am sure but doesn’t the US have the largest prison population in the world?
Oh and don’t ask about it because people in the US will start to justify why
there is one…doesn’t that sound familiar?
It sure does because the US criticizes other countries when they start
to justify their actions in their own countries when confronted by the US and
the US calls BS on them.
How does all of this make sense? It really doesn’t but Rodman hit it on the
nose with this statement
“He loves power. He loves control, because of his father, you know,
stuff like that.”
How many politicians can we name that fit that profile?! We
can probably throw a stone in the direction of any public office and hit the
right person!
So where does this leave us?
Right back to the example that, Yes, Dennis Rodman has given us, be
humble and show some humanity when living life, is this so hard?
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
