October 5, 2001

THAT was a nice report by Nina Wu in your Oct. 2 issue titled "Daly sides with Falun Gong." I applaud Supervisor Daly's spirit in standing up and defending the basic human rights of peaceable assemble and freedom to believe.

Indeed the persecution of Falun Gong in China is horrible. It has been categorized as the worst form of terrorism, "state terrorism" -- the form of government terror against its own people, in an August statement in United Nations. In many ways, this is shockingly reminiscent of the Nazi German persecution of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, which the world vowed would never happen again.

I am disappointed in the response from Mayor Brown's office. There is a clear distinction between supporting the locals as well as the international community for their basic human rights and getting involved with the civic policies of foreign countries. At this time when we are to unite against terrorism we must also stand in solidarity to protect humanity.

Sherry Zhang
Berkeley

http://www.examiner.com/opinion/default.jsp?story=OPletters.1005w