There are very few absolute certainties. Things that are indisputable facts that everyone can agree upon. The sun is going to come up in the east and set in the west that kind of fact.
One such thought that I think most of us can agree upon is that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is an unstable, deeply disturbed, perhaps mentally ill man. The kind of person that keeps the world worried from day to day about what he is going to do next. And a nuclear armed North Korea is even more dangerous.
But yesterday, he displayed an act of compassion that was totally unexpected, unless you know the interesting back story.
Many years ago when Bill Clinton was President he sent Kim Jong-il a sympathy card when his mother passed. A gesture that apparently made quite an impact. Because apparently when you are one of the most hated men in the world any kind gesture sent your way makes a big impact.
Jump ahead to 2009 and the imprisonment of two American journalists tried and convicted and sentenced to hard labor in Korean prison. Efforts made to secure their release had made no progress.
Then out of the blue the news channels are reporting that former President Clinton is on the way to North Korea and surprisingly secures the release of the two and flies back home to the United States with them.
Why was he successful where everyone else had failed? Kim Jong-il said that he would not have released the two journalists to anyone else in the world. But he recalled the kind gesture of President Clinton's card when his Mother died and said he wanted to repay the thoughtfulness.
The point being, you never know when you take a moment to show kindness to your fellow man or do a kind turn for your friends how it might come back to you and even in this case, change the world.
That Golden Rule thing is something, huh?
Nice job Mr. President.
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