Democracy by the ordinary

Democracy is such a big word. What difference can a single person make? You may ask.

But let me tell you about how a small person such as I contributed to the all-so-mighty democracy. If you care, you always find a way. Don’t worry. Your work has value even if it’s not seen by a million. Those who matter will always care.

So last year, I got a text message from my best friend in Melbourne. “What’s up with your president? Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

“Oh yeah. It’s all good. She was just controlled by a shaman witch. But we’ll get rid of her,” I said.

I was being more than accurate. The first female president of East Asia conspired with a long-time friend Choi Soon-sil, who is a daughter of a cult group leader, to pressure major companies to pay money to non-profit organizations under the control of Choi.

Then Saturday came. I was in my living room contemplating on what to do with my life when my father living in Indonesia called me.

“What are you doing home? Shouldn’t you be in Gwanghwamun Square [for our country]?” he said firmly. “People should learn to take responsibilities of their actions.” That’s the square where the months-long candle-lit rallies were going on.

So I got up and darted outside with my camera. I didn’t know how to contribute but I went anyways. I didn’t really fully understand what was going on but I wanted to learn. (Thanks, Dad, for that push.)

A three-hour long march went on that day on the road. The cars weren’t allowed to enter for that day. I was alone but my mind was full. I looked up to see billboards still selling their shit and people inside franchise restaurants and coffee shops watching us as if we were a big blue whale in a world-size aquarium.

Change is what we need. Change spreads its wings when a new idea sinks deep into our minds. The kind that can’t be erased.

So my research began. What caught my eyes were the photos taken from above at night. What a beautiful scene. And the waves of candles were magnificent just like a movie. These types were the majority of images the news outlet from home and abroad would post.

But you have to see us closely. You have to see our faces fighting for freedom and our new democracy. Our struggle will not be trapped in our minds as a spectacle that is pleasing to our eyes.

So I dove deep inside the waves and captured our cry. We had fought for democracy before and we will do whatever it takes once again.

I reached out to a lot of writers online to donate original photos. Many wrote about us but didn’t have access to diverse photos. Most of them didn’t respond to me but a magazine did.

It was a seasonal Korean journal for literature and current affairs. It has a history going back five decades. So I left an impact. I left our faces in our records.

We were more than the candles. We were more than the stars in a dark sky.

We vigorously fought but no violence was reported during our months along rallies and we are proud.

As folk singer Kimya Dawson puts it, we are only a speck of dust in a giant’s eye. But we are what makes a democracy. We are ordinary and we are democracy.

We can make this world a better place. We can make democracy a reality. You and I.

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