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Children in elementary schools outside Seoul who took part in a backpacking trip to experience cultural events in the capital stopped by tents set up by fugitive members of the People¡¯s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease at the Jogye temple downtown and wrote in their guestbook comments insulting President Lee Myung-bak. Photographs and video footage of this incident were spread throughout the Agora debate site on the popular Internet portal Daum. One child wrote "Lee Myung-bak die! Are you crazy?" Another child wrote that the president was worse than a dog. There was one child who wrote that Lee must be doing what he does because he was not born in Korea and told him to leave the presidential office before his "epileptic fits" grew worse.
The children, who are between the third and fifth grades, came to Seoul on July 22 and are said to have visited the Jogye temple on July 23. A young man is said to have approached a third grader who visited the tent out of curiosity and showed the child the guestbook, telling him to write whatever he wanted, that it was all right to write insults and that the comments would not be revealed to others. Using an expletive to describe the president, that child wrote in broken Korean that Lee was indifferent to the prospect of killing his people by feeding them mad-cow-infected American beef and even threatened to kill him. The adults standing by laughed, and when another child wrote insulting comments, he was given a pat on the head by another person who appeared to be a protester. These scenes were captured on video and posted on the Agora website. The principal of the elementary school the children attend posted comments on the school's website saying that one child received a chocolate pie and a fan from the protesters for writing the insults in the guestbook, while another got candy and other sweets for writing expletives to describe the president.
Some things are simply not done by members of a human society, and we become adults when we realize this. The fugitive mad cow protesters violate the simple duty observed by other members of society. They have a long way to go before they grow up.
Instead of teaching children how to marvel at the beauty of our world and instill in them hopes of a bright future, these adults are planting the twisted seeds of hatred in the hearts of children. How can we say they are decent human beings?
When the children asked why they were being videotaped, these twisted people told them the footage would not be posted on the Internet. But it was, for all the world to see. These are people who lie for a living and pretend that they are the saviors of the world.
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