About the worst thing I can imagine would be to lose my family. That’s what happened to Dong Yun Yoon yesterday, in a freak accident when a Navy pilot had to eject and his F/A-18D crash-landed in Yoon’s house, killing his wife, his mother-in-law, and possibly worst of all, his two children.
Obviously, Yoon is very distraught. But he had this to say about the accident today:
“Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident, … He is one of our treasures for the country … I don’t blame him. I don’t have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could.”
I can’t imagine having a heart that big. I want all Readers to pay huge props to this guy. He’d deserve props anyway for naturalizing to the U.S.A. from his native Korea; that’s a journey that takes some courage all by itself. But now, in what is surely the very worst time of his life, it would be very, very easy for him to blame the pilot, blame the Navy, blame someone. But rather than lash out at a target, he prefers to mourn his family and comes to grips with the realization that it was a terrible accident and to show concern for the pilot as well.
May we all be so noble in our times of distress. For my part, Mr. Yoon, I recognize your bravery during an awful time and award you this blog’s highest recognition of class and honor.
Right on. A mensch.