A South Korean woman is walking a mirror image of her mother’s flight from North Korea to South Korea in the 1950’s. Kyong Juhn emigrated to the U.S and is a photographer and walker based in Rochester. She is walking 323 miles from Rochester to Bemidji. Northfield is her 3rd stop on her “Walk for Hope & Peace”. I caught up with her on Hwy 246 coming in from Nerstrand yesterday afternoon. She told me she was prompted to walk after reports of Kim Jong Un and President Trump’s exchanges escalated in frightening ways. She said she felt devastated for those in the Korean peninsula, as any war would involve South Korea too.
Juhn feels an urgency to promote peace. Veterans for Peace, Twin Cities Chapter President,
Dave Logsdon, is driving the chase vehicle. They’re providing a different person to walk with her each day. He said, “our job is to, we’re Veterans and we think that we should stop making veterans and stop making wars and have peace. It’s going to be a lifetime journey, I’m afraid”. Juhn said she hopes to better understand her mother’s strenuous journey all those years ago and wants her “Walk for Hope & Peace” to bring people together. Roger Cuthbertson was walking with her on the stretch from Kenyon to Northfield, where Juhn stayed last night. She is taking photographs along the way and posting those on her Facebook page, Walk for Hope and Peace. I’ll have a link from kymn.net at noon today. She left Northfield this morning and is walking along Hwy 3 to Rosemount. She plans to arrive in Bemidji on May 25th. Juhn received a grant through the Southeastern MN Arts Council. Her mother is living with alzheimer’s.
Mental health issues strain resources of law enforcement
Mental health issues are straining law enforcement, hospitals and emergency rooms. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said last week, “and the bottom line is we need to get more resources for the people, we need secure places to take people where they can get the help they need, we need secondary places where maybe they can just go and meet with someone on a daily basis or a weekly basis”. Right now, a person, for example, is taken to Northfield Hospital to wait for a bed, that bed could be as far away as Sioux Falls or Fargo. They have to be transported there and then, “somebody has to go back and pick them up and bring them back to make sure that they’re safe to be released again and usually that falls on law enforcement through the Sheriff’s office”. Dunn said he’s hoping legislators will release some funds to help solve the problem. One law that WAS passed last week is that, “you can’t drive any motorized vehicle if you get a DWI in a watercraft, in an ATV, in a motor vehicle whatever it may be”. It used to be that, if you got a dui on a snowmobile, for instance, it only affected riding a snowmobile.
Memory Cafe returns to 50North
The Memory Cafe is returning to Fifty North. This is for those with memory loss, their family and friends. The Memory Cafe environment is geared toward those with a wide range of cognitive capacities with a focus on socializing and creative exploration. The goals are to help all participants feel comfortable and know that they’re not alone. Meetings will be on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 1pm.
