In 1783, the U.S. had won its war of independence, but officers were furious over unpaid salaries and pensions. Rumors of a coup circulated. George Washington took out his glasses for the first time in front of them and said, “Serving you has made my hair gray, and now my eyes have grown dim.” Rough men began to weep one by one, and the coup plot vanished. Churchill toured London neighborhoods bombed by Nazis and heard citizens shout, “We can endure. Please retaliate.” His tearful silence conveyed the belief that the prime minister shared the people’s suffering.
▶In a U.S. elementary school shooting, 20 people aged 6–7 died. Then-President Obama wiped away tears, saying, “Thinking of those children drives me mad,” and issued an executive order on gun control. Opposition voices claiming “gun ownership is constitutional” were unusually muted. In 1964, President Park Chung-hee visited Korean miners and nurses in Germany and began singing *Aegukga* (the national anthem) at a coal mine. Miners covered in coal dust and the president, who had sent them thousands of meters underground, choked up and wept together. With these tears as a foundation, South Korea wrote a history of miracles.
▶In 1972, Senator Muskie, a Democratic presidential primary candidate, wept while defending his wife, who was under media attack. However, U.S. voters saw him as “weak and unable to control his emotions,” forcing him to withdraw. Russian President Putin, who flaunted his “strongman” image, shed tears in his 2012 election victory speech. When citizens reacted coldly, he explained, “It was the wind,” becoming a laughingstock. The phrase “‘Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears’”—a title from an old Soviet film—became popular. Kim Jong-un, who treats North Koreans as slaves, often cries and claims to “love the people.”
▶Tears shed by a powerful man for the community can be moving. However, tears for personal gain or excuses often provoke discomfort. Crocodiles shed tears when tearing prey because their jaw and tear glands are connected—“crocodile tears.”
▶Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won wept at a confirmation hearing while mentioning his wife. He argued that suspicions of a “family foundation” were unfair if one knew the hardships his wife and son faced caring for a developmentally disabled child. Citizens who watched this scene likely recalled how Kim had sent a text to Yang, a suspected “sister broker” in a new drug lobbying scandal, saying, “I miss you so much it brings tears to my eyes.” Perhaps only Seo Young-kyo, the Judiciary Committee chairman who also wiped tears, sympathized with Kim’s tears.
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