My first political endorsement

This was a special week at my school. As I was walking to the school on Monday morning I heard a large number of students shouting things in Korean. The students are often loud but this was a very concerted effort. As I turned the corner to look onto the field in front of the school I saw three groups of students vehemently waiving signs at each other. I was not sure what exactly they were doing but I figured my co-teacher would fill me in later that day. I was told that we would not have classes on Thursday because of the school elections were going to be held that day. I realized that the organized chaos on the field was all a part of the political process. On Tuesday morning I was walking onto the campus and the students had moved their campaigning to the schools entrance. This was clearly phase two and they needed more exposure. As the students have a tendency to do they started yelling at me when they saw me. I started to laugh and decided I should take a picture of them. When I pulled out my camera they started screaming. They realized that the press was present and this could help give them a boost in the points. My friend Mr. Chun was with me and he told me to take a picture with them. I thought that sounded like a good idea so I walked over and stood next to a group of girls. One of the girls handed me a campaign sign so I held it up. This single action electrified the crowd. It was on par with Obama getting the Oprah endorsement. The girls instantly started screaming like crazed Beatles fans to try and get full coverage of the political spectacle. As that happened, I looked over at the boys camp and saw some very disappointed faces. I realized that I had effectively just picked a horse in the race and it could actually make a political difference.

Thursday finally rolled around and that meant it was time for the campaign speeches. Each student was given 3 minutes to address the entire student body. I would have loved to have understood what they were saying, but I was able to read the audiences responses to what they were saying and that was great. My girl went last and at this point I was actually rooting for her, after all she had the best poster. She walked up to the podium, but instead of digging right into her talking points like everyone else, she decided to show the school that, if elected, she would be a servant leader. She got on her knees and gave a very slow deep bow to the crowd, a move that clearly impressed. When she did step up to the microphone she spoke with unbelievable charisma. I am sure she was talking about some of the intricacies of her energy policy and her revolutionary idea to play K-pop over the loudspeakers in between classes, but what impressed me most was what came next. She turned over campaign poster and revealed the reason that I knew I had sided with the right candidate.

Here is what the other side of her poster looked like.

With the Oprah-esque endorsement, the Obama endorsement and the clear superior speech, I knew she would win. The speeches had ended and it was time to head to the polls.

I left the gym and headed to my office to prepare a lesson and wait for the results to roll in. The final result...

...was an outrage.

The one boy beat the two girls. I am currently filling shenanigans with the administration office. I believe there was voter suppression and voter fraud. I cannot prove it yet but, I want a re-count.