Sunny Park’s Acceptance Speech for the ICAS Liberty Award, December 3, 2018
Sunny Park’s Acceptance Speech for the ICAS Liberty Award, December 3, 2018
Thank you everyone and thank you Senator Perdue for your kind introduction. You have done
great job exaggerating about my backgrounds. I like it.
You are a true statesman, and we are very proud of you. I appreciate you and Bonnie so much for
taking the time out of your busy schedules to join us this evening. You as an “outsider” in
Washington, making big impacts for right things for American people. We thank you.
Wow! What an honor for this humble janitor to receive the Liberty Award tonight!
I wonder what I have done to deserve this distinguished prize.
In old Korean proverb, a rabbit is a teacher in the valley with no tigers around. I feel that I am a
rabbit where tigers are gone on vacation.
I am appreciative of the Institute for Corean-American Studies. Synja Kim, Sang Joo Kim for the
award. I also appreciate the selection committee have made the mistake of choosing me—a
person certainly at the bottom of the nominees’ list.
I want to congratulate Ambassador Hubbard for also receiving the Liberty Award this evening.
I am very honored and grateful for the guests at our table:
Secretary Sonny Perdue, who is cousin of Senator Perdue, is former governor of the great state of
Georgia. He is a rare statesman, and Georgians are proud of his legacy. Congressman Rob
Woodall joins us, and he has done a fantastic job for Georgia’s 7th District and our Nation.
Congresswoman Amata Radewagen and her husband, Fred, from American Samoa are also here.
Congratulations for your successful reelection campaign with landslide victory! She suggested
that I visit the beautiful Islands, and I am still rowing… Some of you may have noticed that
many of my guests and I share the same blood type, Red, they are proud patriots!
We are honored to have a guest from South Korea, Retired Korean Army three-star general
Inbum Chun, who makes us proud in many ways. We also have Joshua Lee of the Radio Free
Asia here. Thank you so much for coming tonight.
ICAS is the reason people have a better understanding of the unique relationship of the US and
South Korea. Congratulations for your great accomplishments that ICAS has made since 1973. I
solute you for your passion and for your remarkable accomplishments.
If I may, I would like to take this opportunity to share my Love Affair for the United States.
I was 8 years old when the Korean War broke. North Korean Communists invaded South Korea
in June 25, 1950. During the war, I saw many brave American troops arrive in Korea and fought
against the Communist North. So many have sacrificed and died for me and millions of South
Koreans.
After the War, generous Americans provided me and other starving South Koreans relief
supplies such as food, clothes, and school supplies. We were so poor and hungry after the war. I
had to attach my worn-out pencil to a chop stick with a rubber band to write. Pencils were too
short to hold. Our note book was newspapers, we wrote love poems between the lines of war-
front news articles. I and my fellow students were praying for pencils and note books.
Sure enough, I went to school one morning, and found on my desk brand new yellow No 2
pencils, not one but a dozen, and free of charge. Every student received the precious gifts, new
pencils and note books. I still remember the cedar aroma of the pencils.
While I enjoy using it, I always thankful for those people sent us these gifts. They are Americans
attending the Bible based churches. These Americans provided us with food when we were
hungry, sent us warm jackets when we were so cold with no socks, new pencils, and new
notebooks. To me, Americans are the bravest and most generous people in the world. Naturally,
my admiration for Americans grew bigger as time passes, and I am determined to be an
American, to be brave and generous.
Fast forward, I finally landed on the US soil, Indianapolis Airport in 1974. I was so excited to be
in the land of opportunity. Land of opportunity is for sure, I landed a job on that same day. I,
who can’t even speak English, started cleaning a steak house kitchen the same day I arrived, and
started making $1.80 an hour. I couldn’t believe there is such a place like America in anywhere
in the world.
I started thinking on how I can pay back to this great Nation. One of the first things I have done
in the US is to learn the lyrics of the National Anthem and practice the Pledge of Allegiance to
the flag of the US. The U. S. deserved my loyalty and respect, I determined to be one of best
citizens in the U. S. In this land of opportunity, I will work hard and want to be a rich, rich like
Andrew Carnegie, a fellow immigrant from Scotland and become the king of steel. At least for
the plan B, I want to be able to pay one million dollars as income taxes per year.
Well, I didn’t make the king of anything but I earned the title Chief Executive Janitor, and I am
proud of my company, genuine people working hard every day and night. That is the story of my
“love affair” for the U.S.
So, what should I do with this Liberty Award? I think I will utilize the award to attract my youth
audiences. With this award, I may look like a tiger, rather than a rabbit, to those youth audiences,
and pay more attention to my mentoring programs for high school dropouts.
You probably know but there are about 1.3 Million high school students dropping out each year
from high schools in the U.S. I think by helping them to stay in school is a better plan than to
take care of them later when many of them end up in jail. The statistics show that about 60% of
inmates are high school dropouts.
I want to spend time with high school dropouts as a mentor, trying to help them to rehabilitate,
and transform to be a productive citizen. My mentoring efforts at Youth Challenge Academies
are well intended, but getting and holding the attention of teens can be difficult, as many of you
know—or perhaps remember. This Liberty Award will help me to get their attentions, and I may
able to do a better job in paying back to America. For that, I thank ICAS for Liberty Award.
Together with contributions by all Americans, we will continue to be the land of opportunity
hundreds of years to come! May God bless the U. S. A.
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!
