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T. J. Max
The American island territory of Puerto Rico, situated in Gulf of Mexico was hit by Category 5 hurricane ‘Irma’ about 2 weeks ago. The entire island was decimated and I heard that many areas of the land still have no electrical power as the place is still under a state of recovery.
From the news, I saw that the place was devastated with things blown about everywhere – power lines down, wires everywhere tangling about in heaps of mess.
Many people had perished from the hurricane, along with injured however, the power line was still down so the equipments in the hospital were most useless. So many hospital ships were sent from United States, but this was still not enough.
While watching the news few days ago, I heard something that was almost unbelievable. In that island, there are 10 stores owned by the brand T. J. Max and that only one was recovered out of the 10 stores. The next part of the news was the real shocker. “Despite the storm passing, many of the stores have yet to recover and open, but we will still pay the employees of the stores.” The announcement made something go warm in my chest. “How is this decision made and carried out?” when that was asked, the answer was simple. “It is because it is the right thing to do.” Since people had lost their jobs from the disaster, they were in a dire situation in income. That… was the right thing to do! I believe that in a capitalist society, to give up all the riches one has to people them work under from natural disaster so freely like that is such a rare thing to see. Several times in the news in the past, I’ve heard similar stories where companies CEO would risk bankrupts, but would still give out compensation package to their employees as they leave empty handed.
There is no T. J. Max near where I live. It’s on the next city over. I must visit this store to see if I got anything I need to purchase…
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I heard this morning in the news that the weather forecast was rain.
From the news, apparently the city of Santa Rosa which had burned down to ashes, there was a forecast of rain pointed in yellow arrow. Since there is a rain predicted, I was worried that since the mountains would make mudslides to pushes all the dirt and the entire sewer would be blocked from the ashes, the remaining city buildings and trash etc. It was such a painful thing to see. About 15,000 people had lost their homes from the fire and now where would they stay? Some realtor had helped many people relocate. However, many people still do not have a place to stay. It was sad to see.
There was a concert held few days ago in AT&T Park for the fire victims. From the concert the funds were collected for rebuilding and about $15million was gathered, and all the money was donated for the cost of repairs. It was such available thing to see!
About two months or so ago (September 26th), there was a tragic news in Korea. One of the members of the 6th Division’s Corporal Lee was accidentally shot and killed in a young age. From this news of the accident, many media coverage was like a boiling pot, such as find out the soldier who fired the round, the officers in charge et al. Because of this, the Defense Minister opened a case to find answers. During this time, the search had suddenly was stalled which was surprising.
It was the father of the late corporal’s honesty that had stalled the search. He said apparently to the media, “I do not wish to know who fired the mystery shot. I just wish never, would such case like this ever happen again.” He had lost his beloved son and because he feared that if he “knew of who had shot the fatal round, I would probably hold a lifelong grudge” He didn’t want to know the soldier’s name nor wanted him punished from the accident. He had a pure heart of forgiveness and forgetfulness.
Whenever such an event happens, the Korean society suffers greatly. The surviving family member’s actions make my head bow in admiration. The father of the deceased soldier said, “I’m sure that soldier [who accidentally shot my son] has a father just like me, as a fellow parent I do not wish for more collateral damage.”
Many would normally scream about returning my [deceased] son, requesting for a reprisal or to have a restitution of damages. No one can blame for such things happening in these tragic situation. However the father was open-minded, welcoming and to hold his painful heart to continue the peace of Korea to win over this tragic occasion with love. I wished I could see a picture of the surviving family and of the father. However, this father did not wish to be shown to the world. If he wished to be in a newspaper, he cannot open the chapter that is the deep love and peacefulness he had. After reading such an inspiring article my mind was racing around about this.
(November 18th, 2017)
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Why? 
T. J. Max