hankyoreh

A member of a conservative ROK Mom’s Brigade Volunteer Group takes a photo of a Sewol victim’s family member after the Sewol families asked the group to leave Gwanghwamun Square

The first word that babies say after they enter this world is “mom.” The word that we call in a low voice when life is trying or lonely is “mom.” The last word that we cry in our final hour is also “mom.” The word that we blurt out unconsciously when we are filled with the fear of death is “mom.” The final word screamed by the children at Danwon High School who were screaming for help and choking on salt water as they went down with the Sewol ferry was probably “mom,” too.

And then there’s a group of fork-tongued serpents who also claim the name of “mom”: the ROK Mom’s Brigade Volunteer Group. The group held a demonstration in front of the sit-in and hunger strike by bereaved families of the Sewol accident that took place at Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul on July 18.

July 18. The woman also reportedly threatened to report the Sewol families to the police if the interrupted the moms’ demonstration. (by Kim Seong-gwang

The members of Mom’s Brigade held signs that said, “I don’t get it, it’s not like your kids laid down their lives for their country” and “You’re taking things too far. Your kids aren’t uisaja.” Uisaja is a posthumous honor given to individuals who lose their lives going above and beyond the call of duty to save someone else.”

The first thing that we have to get the facts straight about is the uisaja issue. What the mothers who lost their children during the Sewol accident are asking for is not compensation, but the truth. “We are not asking for recognition as uisaja, special admission to university, or support for the rest of our lives. We just want the truth about our childrens’ deaths to be revealed and for the guilty parties to be punished,” the bereaved families have said on multiple occasions. The Mom’s Brigade is making an issue of uisaja despite this in a deliberate attempt to twist and misrepresent the bereaved families’ wishes.

Even today, the mothers who lost their children are suffering extreme hardship. They have been in front of the National Assembly for a week: during the day, they take part in the sit-in, drenched in sweat under the scorching sun; in the evening, they shiver under thin blankets.

The reason that the bereaved families are enduring all this is so that South Korean children do not have to suffer tragic deaths such as their own children suffered. Since they know just how great the pain of losing a child is, they are patiently waiting so that other parents don‘t have to suffer as they did. That is the heart of a mother.

Lately, the Moms’ Brigade is said to be so active that it is described as being in the vanguard of conservative right-wing organizations. Expressing differences of opinion on political matters is a good thing. However, there is no excuse for plunging another dagger into the hearts of mothers who have lost their children, and doing that in the name of moms.

staff photographer)

During the demonstration at Seoul Plaza on July 19, there was a screening of a previously unreleased video by students at Danwon High School. In the video, one of the deceased students is recorded saying, “I really want to live. Ah, I’m scared. I have dreams. . .”

We would like the members of the Moms’ Brigade to each watch this video, too. We hope that they will think of their own children, too. This callous practice of using the language of killing under the name of “mom” has got to end.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]