It astonishes me to think about
all the cultures that populate the earth
with different tongues and customs--
their own food, clothes, and manners,
all these things "right" to each.
Why throughout history do we have
some cultures trying to dominate
other ones, termed inferior ways?
What makes one culture better than another?
Does it matter how many people
of which that culture embodies life?
Should we not gratefully cherish
the different views that can be found?
Should not other cultures remind us
that our way may be "right" to us
but there are other ways in the world?
God forbid that there were a better way!
Here's hoping for better world relations
and a better cultural sense of other's worth.

*Sep. 13, 2002. Wrote this after having visited the Independence Hall near Chonan, Korea. The Hall is to commemorate Korean independence from Japanese colonial rule. The Korean people servived an attempt to wipe out their culture and language and were freed at the end of World War II by the US and its allies after 35 years of occupation and about 50 years of harassment. Ironically enough, the emotional fuel of the Japanese colonialism was the western powers meddling with east asian affairs, trying to fix "backward" nations.