Goal Statement for LNT 501

Goals Statement

Koon Woon
LNT Spring 2010, UIS
Professor William Kline


This year I have reached the age of 61. Therefore, to speak about my intermediate and long-range goals must show some kind of realism and modesty, because of the short time I have left to realize those goals. Being at this older chronological age, I must also take into account of my health and the things that I will be able to do with the amount of energy I can expend on these life’s projects.

Ever since my maternal Uncles told me stories when I was a young boy in China, I wanted to understand things literary to gain insight into life. The most important step was/is to read books of literature – novels, short fiction, plays, and poetry.

I grew up in the era what was known as the “Sputnik Scare,” when the Soviet Union orbited around the Earth the world’s first man-made satellite back in the 1950’s. The names of all the cities in the world that the Sputnik flew over were announced. This was to say that a nuclear bomb could have been dropped over those cities. This spurted the “Space Race” and the emphasis on science and engineering in our schools and industry.
It filtered down to our relatively small town Aberdeen, Washington high school. I was an exceedingly good student in science and math, and so the school counselors and my teachers urged me to study for an occupation in engineering or in physics or math.

Suddenly the war in Vietnam broke out and the “Flower Power Movement” of the “Hippie Scene” and Counterculture, the Student Movement, the Peace Movement, the Black Panthers, the Freedom Marches of Martin Luther King Jr. and the introduction of East Asian philosophy and culture all sprung up to take the imagination of the youths. I was caught in that maelstrom. This led me to study Marxism and finding little converts or sympathetic ears I “dropped out” of things conventional – school, employment, middle-class goals, etc. in order to seek personal fulfillment.

Unfortunately, I was hit with a genetic time-bomb; schizoaffective disorder (mental illness) in my twenties which was totally disabling and it is still ongoing, though much sanity has been recovered due to medications and psychiatric intervention. I did manage to publish a book of poetry, finish a degree in Liberal Studies at Antioch University Seattle, and gotten engaged to a kind-hearted woman.

So, at this point, at age 61, I want to finish a Master’s degree in liberal studies with emphasis on literature and philosophy. Since life is short and art is long, I want to work with younger writers and continue with editing and publishing a small literary magazine and press that I founded and operated. I have founded an S- corporation as a subsidiary to a nonprofit corporation for the purposes of promoting literature and world peace.

I hope to augment my disability income with profits from these publishing entities. I do have some success so far; I have published several titles of poetry and short fiction with my Goldfish Press. In fact, a couple of books are now on the shelves at Antioch University Seattle and in a city library in Wisconsin and are on sale at Amazon.com.

I want to become a senior editor of poetry and managing editor of the press. My fiancée has agreed to help me. I have attracted several capable young people who also want to be part of the publishing company.

I fully realize, however, that my time and energy will be limited in making this worthy project grow, and so much of it will depend on motivating others to carry on. To be realistic about my own financial future, my best bet is to work with the Social Security Administration who awards my disability payments and can possibly allowed me to established a Passport to Self-Support plan, where I can operate a company with assets up to $5 million and a salary of $30,000 a year. Since my main requirement is medicine and medical treatments, I must operate within the rules of the Social Security Administration and state regulations to work within these limits. So, this is actually a problem in maximization within constraints. However, whatever guise all these rules and exceptions can take, my main objective is to keep on receiving medical attention and function within the limits set by laws and regulation and at the same time, maximizes the good I can do as a nonprofit agency administrator.

My basic qualification is that I have operated a restaurant in the past and have taken some MBA courses in management from Western Governors University. Also, I have been, as mentioned above, acted as editor and publisher of my own literary press, and I have even been a judge of poetry contests and organizer of literary events. In any case, literature and world peace is what my heart is into. We all do what we can. I will give it my best shot.