For a Long While, I Looked at the Taegeukgi with Discomfort
A reflection born of my own ignorance: I let the people who misuse the flag define it. But the Taegeukgi was the banner of those who risked everything for independence — and its history was never theirs to take.
For a long while, I looked at the Taegeukgi — our national flag — with discomfort.
Watching it appear again and again at certain political rallies, attached to extreme claims, I found myself keeping distance from the symbol itself without realizing it.
But thinking about it later, the Taegeukgi was never meant to belong only to people like that.
It was the flag raised by those who cried out for independence in an era when the country had been taken away.
It was the symbol carried by people who walked into the streets with their safety and their lives on the line — a flag that held the longing for freedom and self-determined independence.
Just because someone misuses the Taegeukgi doesn't mean its history and meaning should be handed over to them.
I had misjudged the flag itself based only on the people I saw waving it.
That is clearly something I need to reflect on.
The Taegeukgi is not the property of any generation or political faction.
It belongs to every citizen living in the Republic of Korea — and before that, it was a symbol carrying the courage and sacrifice of those who fought for independence.
Turning away from a misused symbol is not the answer; remembering and reclaiming its original meaning may be the more upright stance.
Belatedly, I look at the Taegeukgi again.
Not as the flag of the extremes,
but as the flag of the people who dreamed of independence and freedom.