Page 72 - NAKS MAC 2026 EBook

And now, I am part of the future generation they sacrificed for. I can
enjoy freedoms that they could only imagine: the freedom to learn my

history, to speak my mind, and to choose the future I want for myself.
But being born into freedom also gives me a responsibility to
understand where it came from, because I am reminded of that
responsibility whenever I see the plaque in my grandfather’s home,

recognizing his father as a National Meritorious Person.

The plaque is small, but the story behind it is not. He did not fight in
Korea’s independence movement; by the time he became a soldier,
Korea had already been liberated. Instead, he fought in the Korean War,

a conflict born from the division of a newly liberated nation, to
preserve it.

He was captured and never returned home, leaving behind a wife who
faithfully waited for him until her own passing. His sacrifice was
different from those of the independence activists I had learned

about, but it was part of the same continuing struggle for a future in
which Koreans could live freely and peacefully.

Remembering these sacrifices does not mean that my generation must
repeat them. Instead, we can honor them by understanding the
freedoms they fought to protect and using those freedoms

responsibly. We can learn the history they lived, protect the
democracy they made possible, and pursue the peace that so many
never lived to see. I may never be able to repay my great-grandfather

or the countless Americans and Koreans who sacrificed before me, but
I can make sure that their sacrifices are remembered—and that the
future they fought for continues to move forward.

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