tougher times for some

It's tough to complain about my life after trying to imagine what Don Yoon is going through. Yoon lost his wife, both daughters (15-months old, 1-month old), and his mother-in-law to the F-18 fighter jet crash in Miramar this week. He's lost everyone close to him but has remained resolute in shielding the pilot from blame in the public eye, and has also reached out to the community to help him to move forward in the best way he can.

Yoon emigrated from South Korea in 1989 and his values tied to Korean culture stand out even in an article from the Union-Tribune. During his conversation with the media, he described the guilt he feels for his father-in-law. It might seem outlandish for some from different cultural backgrounds, but the intangible familial responsibilities of Koreans are, at the least, respectable.

My father-in-law is coming tomorrow and I don't know what to tell him. I don't know if he'll ever forgive me.

To give you an idea of the proximity of this crash, here's a picture:

I live where the Toscana streets meet, about five minutes away from the crash. There's no telling how most of us would have reacted had it been our home. The railroad track that divides my neighborhood from Yoon's is located in an uninhabited valley. Some readers are praising the pilot's efforts to take the plane into the valley while others are criticizing his flight path over more than three public schools right before the crash. Regardless of the pilot's intentions, Yoon's patience and character in dealing with such a loss should be respected and admired.

Alex Cho’s Blog