From the April 18th Philadelphia rally at Independence mall, K4Obama supporter Helen Gym got to sit in the stands behind the future president

Why I Support Barack Obama – One Philadelphia Korean American’s Hope

April 18, 2008
by Helen Gym

As the Pennsylvania primary approaches, I have been thinking a lot about what the presidential elections have meant to me as a second generation Korean American.

My parents came to the U.S. in the 1960s. My father, a refugee from the north, renamed himself “Golden” Gym in honor of his hopes to remake himself in this country. My mother’s family gave thanks for her good fortune to study and live in the U.S. (more…)

(From left to right:) Chungsoo Lee, Helen Gym, Eunsook Kang, Sookyung Oh, Chongguk Lee It was a little hectic the night before with Eunsook and I staying up until midnight to prepare the press packets and talking points, but it was sure worth it. We had great success on Monday with our press conference with Korean language media. Coverage from five of the eight major greater Delaware Valley Korean language press showed up, with another paper calling to confirm they would also cover this story. Our other outreach should start hitting tomorrow and the weekend will be canvassing. We also have op-eds being printed in some of the newspapers and will post those as they are ready. Until then, this is Sookyung from Obamadelphia signing off!

by Eun Sook Kang
I grew up with no heroes and no favorite movie stars or favorite rock star. I didn’t put up posters of pop icons on my wall. I thought generally of the popular culture scene and was not so motivated by any particular image until I heard about Barack Obama. I began hearing about him through the publication of his book and observed him throughout his campaign. I saw Barack Obama for the first time in person up close like within two feet of him at the Convention Center when he spoke to the organizing group of volunteers. I was captivated, inspired, overjoyed and thought to myself that I am like a kid at a candy store; so wonderful, pleasing, and delightful. It was an awe invoking moment seeing him walk out unto the platform and address the crowd. He seemed larger than life and yet at the same time real and down to earth and spoke “with some sense.” I was star struck such that I couldn’t move. When he came round to shake hands with the 12 security guards around him, I was frozen and couldn’t reach out my hand over the shoulders of those in front of me to shake his hand. At least I got to see him within inches of me. It was memorable. Someone said, “I ‘m not going to wash my hand,” and I thought, “gee if I hadn’t been so frozen I would be saying those very words myself; a little campy in sentiment, but what the heck, it’s Barack Obama, not any ordinary run of the mill type of individual.

He’s like a twinkle in the night’s clear sky that electrifies the whole world.

Updates from Young Sun Song, a volunteer in Texas.

Tuesday, February 26th

We arrived in Houston around 12:30. even thought it was very tiring, I couldn’t go to bed right away, rather watched cnn rerun before bed. ate cereal, and went over our plan for today. we met Inchul sohn who contacted through the website. Mr. Sohn is 1.5 gen. and lawyer. He spoke Korean very well, and again we heard from him how converstaive KA in houston are. we talked about what would be the best strategy for Houston, and we decided to target KA media to talk about who we are, and why KA should support Obama instead of meeting KA orgs.

This update is from Kent Lee, another volunteer in Texas.

We had a very successful press conference on Wed Feb 28th. Total 9 media outlets showed up including two daily newspapers, 6 weekly newspapers, and one radio station.

The Korea times placed an article about us in the front page on Tuesday already.

At the press conference, the first half, about 20 minutes, we introduced ka4obama such as how it started, and where/how many we have supporters are, and as big groups what we�re going to do, and as small delegation, what kind of goals we are trying to achieve. Reporters were very interested in how we fundraised for expenses to send 3 delegations and place ads. (more…)

This is an update from Young Sun Song, one of the volunteers who went to Texas.

Feb 25, Monday

We arrived at the motel around the midnight in Dalls, TX yesterday. We watched little bit of CNN rerun of Obama/Clinton debate from last Thursday. We set up alarm at 7am, but DJ wouldn’t get up for a while, probably because of jet leg. luckily, DJ asked some people, and we were able to eat hot breakfast. while we were having breakfast, we also called people to confirm the meetings today Young Sun called Senior association, DJ to InChul Shon in Houston, and Chaegu to Korea times. (more…)

Susan Ahn Cuddy, a daughter of Dosan Ahn Chang HoAs the daughter of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, I grew up in a Korean-American household where there was much discussion of government, politics and democracy. Later, I was the first female Asian-American officer in the United States Navy. I also worked for the government for many years as a codebreaker for the National Security Agency. However, I have never been moved to speak out in a U.S. presidential campaign � until now.Today, we are at war, our economy is struggling, millions of people don�t have health care, our environment is getting worse, and our political leaders are divided. We need a leader who can unite all Americans, including Democrats, Republicans, and independents, to address the problems facing us.This is why I support Senator Barack Obama. He is the only candidate who is capable of inspiring different groups of people to work together to solve our nation�s problems. When I see Senator Barack Obama excite the American public with his message of unity and change, I am reminded of my father Dosan. My father was a national leader of integrity and purpose who inspired and led the Korean people to fight for independence from Japanese imperialism in the early 1900s. Today, I see Senator Obama providing similar inspiration and leadership to the American people. (more…)

Korean Americans for Obama launched through a Los Angeles press conference announcing the formation of the group, and the upcoming fundraiser on Friday 2/21. Reporters from JBC Radio, Korea Daily, KTAN, KBS, Koreatown Daily / Sports Seoul USA, TVK, Korea Times attended the conference. Media coverage will be coming up tomorrow!

Click here to see other pictures of the press conference.