Sung Rno

Playwright

 

I wish for more quiet acts of courage.

I wish for alleviation to the widespread suffering in this world.

I wish for an end to bombs, whether they be car-, smart-, or otherwise.

I wish for real action over empty rhetoric – more Chekhov, less Cheney.

I wish for peace, love and understanding.

I wish for more Elvis Costello.

I wish for more complexity and reality and comedy.

I wish for more poetry and beauty and tragedy.

I wish for more work that scares you, that makes your hair stand on end.

I wish for more work that is funny, not ha-ha that’s kind of funny, but you’re rolling on the ground and your stomach muscles hurt and you’re crying kind of funny.

I wish for more work where you can see glimpses of God.

I wish for fewer Asian actor delivery boys, gangsters, geishas, pathologists.

I wish for more Asian roles, in which case I take back the previous wish.

I wish for more ambitious work, even if it fails (cuz brave work does).

I wish for more work, period.

I wish that Korean American audiences would be more aggressive and vocal.

I wish that Korean soap operas were real.

 

Sung Rno is a poet, playwright and screenwriter based in New York City, NY. His recent plays, including “wAve,” are published in the anthology Savage Stage (Ma-Yi Theater).

 

Yul Kwon

2006 “Survivor”

Winner

 

My holiday wish is to see more Korean Americans caring about and giving back to their communities. I wish to see more Korean Americans reaching out to communities beyond just their own. I wish to see more Korean Americans who have achieved mainstream success be willing to speak and act as ambassadors for those who lack a voice.

I wish to see a Korean American in Congress within the next decade, and a Korean American presidential candidate within my generation. I wish that every person reading this will take at least one real step toward saving the life of someone in our community by registering to become a bone marrow donor this Christmas.

 

Yul Kwon, the 2006 winner of CBS’ “Survivor: Cook Islands,” has used his celebrity to promote causes including increasing the number of minority bone marrow donors and the visibility of Asian Americans in the media. For more information on the Asian bone marrow donor program, visit www.aadp.org or www.asianmarrow.org.

 

 

Mike Honda

U.S. House of

Representatives

 

This holiday season, I wish for those euphemistically known as “comfort women” to find some peace of mind. These courageous women, some of whom hold weekly protests at the Japanese embassy in Seoul, are still vigilantly fighting for justice in the form of an official government apology from the government of Japan. I hope for these women to find some peace in their minds and in their hearts, knowing that there is a passionate community of advocates who will continue to work toward justice on their behalf.