This is the one-year anniversary of the day Korea's former President and failed coup leader Yoon Seok-yeol was impeached by the Constitutional Court and dismissed from his position. I was at a rally near Anguk Metro Station just blocks from the Court, watching the reading of the judgment with tens of thousands of others on a huge screen, trembling with rage, terror, and hope as we hung on the Justice's every word.
I'm not ashamed and in fact proud to say that I was there to storm the court, and I believe most of us were, if by some unthinkable chance the Court did not dismiss the traitor who tried to plunge my country into bloody tyranny and would have had the greenlight to go ahead if not stopped by Constitutional ruling. We were exercising restraint solely because we knew it was the most peaceful and expedient if the rule of law took him down and not a popular uprising. But if the Constitutional Court turned on us and threw us to the wolves, then of course we were going to fight back and the Court that had betrayed us would be first in line.
Fortunately it did not come to that and the Court ruled unanimously to get rid of our tried-to-be dictator, and we celebrated not only the clearing of that dark cloud over our heads after four long months, but also the fact that we would not have to fight and die. Things were still a long way from normal but we could start working to rebuild, and we know how to work no matter how difficult the circumstances.
It's been a year and things are better, though imperfect as politics always will be. The disgraced former President Yoon has since been detained and was sentenced to life in prison at his first-instance trial for treason, a decision he has of course appealed. I know our democratic crisis was on Extreme Easy Mode compared to struggles elsewhere, and my thoughts are with people around the world fighting for accountable governance, a just and peaceful society, a semblance of a future. In a better world all attempted despots would be deposed peacefully like Yoon. For those who cannot be, may they fall by sword and fire if necessary.
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