The Melancholy Korean

You know this guy.  Sure you do.  Hard-working, quiet, respectful guy in the front row.  Not much personality, always prepared, ambitious but only academically, without the social ambition that really gets a person somewhere, so safe to ignore.

Yeah.  You know him.  You may have even talked to him; at least, you asked him for help on the homework when you were hung over from the party.  You had fun in college, drank too much, tried pot, got addicted to pills--the usual, normal stuff. 

He was happy to help.  He liked the attention, and it cost him nothing but his time, which (see above re social ambition) he had in buckets.  You didn't know this, maybe you suspected it, but when he was helping you, he had contempt for your dissolute ways, your poor preparation, your poor grades.  That's how it is with the insecure.  They can never let anyone else be happy.

So, John C. Yoo, professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, they know you.  I know you.  You are the Pride of the Family.  Successful son of the grocer, or whatever.  But, listen, smarty pants.  Can you figure this out?

Far better, a thousand times better, for you to have taken over the drycleaning business, than what you have accomplished in your "accomplished" life!  You are a scoundrel, a rascal, and a coward.  Let us call the yellow-bellied coward by name.  Come on, a**wipe.  Hit me.  I would love to take this outside.

All those innocent people tortured in the name of National Security--our laws disregarded because of the President's Wartime Authority, according to your famous memos--all those families destroyed, all the pain inflicted on bodies private and public--can you hear them?  Can you hear those voices crying out for justice?

Your turn is coming, John.  Your turn is coming.

Remember the words of the Prophet and tremble:

Let justice roll down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.