giro_di_dante

This is crazy to me. I got fucked because of an operation, among a cascade of other shit. I had to file bankruptcy. I got all my debts cleared, which legitimately saved my life based on my circumstances. I’m getting bills 8 months after the operation, and 2 months after discharge. So instead of starting from 0, I’m starting back in the negative, in a sense where I was pre-filing.

What are some favorite memories or interactions with people? Especially those trying for the first time?

Now that my question it out of the way, I’d like to say…

I live in Los Angeles — a place with a large and active Korean community.

As an Italian-American native Angeleno, I have a few things to say to you:

I spend a ton of time in Koreatown, because it’s my favorite neighborhood in the city. It’s vibrant and raucous and cool and familiar and unique and experiential all at once.

I think that KBBQ is as quintessentially LA as pastor tacos. It’s a mainstay of culture and life here.

I have shared many meals with many friends over the years at a number of Korean restaurants, but I very clearly remember my dad taking me to his favorite KBBQ restaurant for the first time when I was around 10. He got me hooked early on. Years later, after a difficult divorce and being in a bad place, I was in need of a major parental pep talk. My dad chose a KBBQ restaurant for us to talk and enjoy each other’s company, because they are places that we have long enjoyed going to together. I was in a dark place, and just being in a favorite and familiar place with my dad started to put me on a right path again.

I have introduced my Romanian girlfriend to the brilliance of KBBQ, and she is obsessed and begs for it any time we go out to eat. I also took her very Romanian parents for the first time, and her family loved it. And this was a really big moment for me, bonding with her family in my city for the first time. I still laugh at her dad’s facial expressions and reactions trying everything for the first time. He was amazed at how good it all was.

My mom, who mainly eats Italian or Mediterranean focused food and who only eats Mexican outside of her “norm,” and who also doesn’t even really eat red meat, went to her first KBBQ restaurant with me and fell in love with the whole experience.

Whenever friends and family from out of town visit LA, going to a KBBQ place is an absolute must on my regular stops. So I’ve shared countless fun and meaningful meals with people I love at these kinds of restaurants.

I’m very lucky to have a great Korean community here in my city.

I’m just writing all of this to say…thank you for your work. Thank you for your knowledge and passion. Thank you for providing a fun, hospitable, and communal atmosphere for anyone.

It’s because of people like you — Korean immigrants and Korean-Americans alike — that I have such amazing memories and happy experiences. So many nights of laughing and sharing and getting drunk and eating amazing food.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have traveled all over this world, and lived abroad in several countries. There are many things in this world that I love. So many great traditions and memories.

But there’s something special about sitting down in a favorite KBBQ restaurant right here at home, with people I love, and enjoying great food and great company.

Thank you, my dude.

History has shown that change is usually started at home, by local people, from within. That there's a "straw that broke the camel's back moment" and people revolt and fight for their own freedoms, security, and independence. Sometimes this is done peacefully, but it often necessitates violence. In other words: freedom is taken, not given.

Do you think that there will ever be a time when Mexicans revolt against the cartels and their complicit government to create a safe, secure, and prosperous homeland? Is there any hope of change happening if people flee the country in high numbers, often losing their best and brightest -- those who are most capable and prepared to help build a modern nation?

It seems to me that, so long as there's always the option of picking up and leaving to another country, there will never be that "French Revolution" spark necessary to remove their oppressors from power.

Thanks!

Gangs travel. That's normal. MS13 is one of many players in the game, most of which originated in Mexico.

Russian, Italian, Chinese etc. organized crime started in their respective countries and spread far and wide.

So to say that just because one notable hand started in the US and moved south is reason for Mexicans not to revolt is silly.

Otherwise, what else would you expect them to do? Wait for their government to figure shit out? Hope that the police stop taking hush money? Ask for foreign intervention (because that always works so well)? Wait till everyone in the country flees abroad?

To me, there is only a single feasible solution. I would hope for a peaceful resolution, but I frankly don't see that happening.

The first thing that could be done -- globally, and not just in Mexico -- is the legalization of minor drugs and decriminalization of major drugs. Aside from that, I see no other solution to the problem other than Mexicans taking the future of their country into their own hands.

Yeah I remember seeing a short documentary about it. It seemed to be fairly effective in creating local security and protection. That's when it sort of clicked in me, "Maybe that's the solution."

The issue is likely that, as I imagine, most Mexicans do not own arms -- at least not anything powerful enough to fight what is effectively a marco military.

Mexico is a prime example of why I, even as a pretty devoted liberal, believe in the 2nd Amendment in the US. I know that the concept of needing personal firearms to defend against something like a corrupt government or drug cartels in incomprehensible, but the fact is that our societies -- even the most stable -- are tenuous and fragile.