Letters to the Editor

What You Say

As a person who was born and grew up in mainland China, I have no doubt about the common practice of state-sponsored and covered-up organ-harvesting on prisoners and innocent prisoners of conscience like Falun Gong practitioners [Cover, "Chinese Democracy," Aisha Sattar, Sept. 27, 2007].

In traditional Chinese culture, donating organs is like a taboo — when people die, they want their whole body to go with them. Cutting one's body and putting one's body parts to use is considered the biggest insult to the human dignity of the deceased. Based on this traditional Chinese belief, nobody in their right mind would want to let their body be cut and organs be taken. It is a major cultural difference from Western society.

So where is the supply to make China the hottest bed for transplant operations? The organs from the executed prisoners officially published by the Chinese government are extremely limited and can hardly supply a fraction of the high demand of transplant operations performed in China. For people who grew up in ex-Soviet Union or today's communist China, it is not hard at all to understand how the inner workings of closed totalitarian societies solve this problem between supply and demand.In today's China, if you believe the existence of such a consent given by people to donate their organs, Chinese people who have lived through and witnessed more than a half-century's Chinese Communist Party's history of lying and terror would laugh at you. Everything in China can be faked: power milk for babies, food, toys, toothpastes, tires — the recent massive recalls of poisoned Chinese imports in U.S. is a excellent testimony to how believable the Chinese communist regime is.

History repeats itself: Nobody during WWII was willing to believe or accept the fact of genocide of Jewish people inside the concentration camps. But it was a fact. Nobody was willing to believe that evil did exist in this free land of America until the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened. When "Made in China" products are threatening the very lives of the children and families here in America, how much more evidence do we demand in order to wake up from the rosy daydreams about communist China?

James Lee
Philadelphia

I would like to offer Jeff Kline some reassurance, and additional research to Ms. Sattar, on the Falun Gong organ harvesting allegation. In addition to Chinese dissident Harry Wu, the U.S. State Department has also conducted secret investigations and found the allegations not credible. I would also like to point out that Stephen Gregory of Epoch Times was less than truthful when he stated his paper is not connected with Falun Gong. The financial connection between Falun Gong and Epoch Times is not a secret.

Gregory's claim of "well-sourced stories" is also in question. Here's a recent example: A blogger who is also a physician noticed Falun Gong media such as Epoch Times passing off photo of a Chinese woman with advanced-stage breast cancer as evidence of torture to her breasts. Epoch Times, as well as other Falun Gong media outlets, seems to have only one goal: to create an "Echo Chamber" for their anti-Chinese propaganda. Those of us in the community see right through it. As an Asian-American community activist, I have been witnessing this for a long time.

Charles Liu
Seattle, Wash.

I live in Philadelphia and am employed in human services, helping the disabled. My wife and I have both practiced Falun Gong for more than six years and have benefited tremendously. If you search on his name and organ harvesting, you will see that [Charles Liu] has been on a methodical campaign to poison people's perceptions about David Kilgour and David Matas' reports. He wrote an article called "The Myth of Tiananmen Square Massacre." The title speaks for itself. Liu uses the same tactic as a criminal defense attorney defending a criminal during proceedings in which there is substantial and credible evidence. He tries to cast doubts on a few points and shift peoples' attention from the larger picture and the broad weight of evidence.

Phil Randell
Epoch Times, Philadelphia staff

[Slant, "On the Defensive," Michael Washburn, Sept. 20, 2007] is right on the money. Self-defense is a human right, but if you deny me the means to effectively defend myself, you make me a target for every low-life robber or rapist out there. I like the following definition — "Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound."

Debra Blatnik
St. Pete Beach, Fla.

Well written and articulate! Excellent piece! I live in New Jersey, where gun-stupidity seems to have infected the brains of most politicians. I hope they read your clear and grounded editorial; maybe it will help rid them of their ailment.

John Montenigro
Montclair, N.J.

Thank you for telling Philadelphia about ArtJail Philadelphia andother important information about the Barnes Foundation controversy [Loose Canon, "Has Barnes' Vision Finally Been Realized?" Bruce Schimmel, Sept. 20, 2007]. I am so grateful for people like Bruce, who don't miss an opportunity to throw light on dimly lit corners to reveal important truths, painful though they may be.Such is the case with the nightmare of the Barnes Foundation.The public has been misled — no, scratch that — lied to long enough by the region's paper of record.Please expand your coverage andtellpeople what is really going on. For example:

• Two petitions have been filed in Montgomery County Court, one of which calls for the dismissal of the members of the Barnes "Boardof Trustees." Each of those trustees have been ordered to appear in Court on Oct. 5 and 19 to respond to the petitions by the Friends of the Barnes, et al. and Montgomery County.

• The Barnes Foundation, in its entirety, has been deemed to be eligible for consideration as a National Historic Landmark, an honor reserved for only the most historically and culturally significant sites in the United States.

• Writers from coast to coast — except The Philadelphia Inquirer — have recently writtencritical articles, with The New York Timesarchitecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff writing thatthe dismantling of the Barnes Foundation "is a crime."

• None of the above has been reported, locally, save for our blessed weeklies in Ardmore, Main Line Life, Main Line Times.

Readers deserve to know and your paper has an opportunity and a duty to write about it loud and clear. Blowing open the lies about this controversy is your job and long overdue. If you are not going to be one of the truth tellers, you are part of the cabal that is lying about it. What are you afraid of?

Evelyn Yaari
Member, Friends of the Barnes Foundation

Tod Williams and Billie Tsein, who have been chosen to design the proposed Barnes Foundation Museum in Philadelphia will go down in history as being the designers of the biggest mausoleum ever built. A monument to theft and deception and manipulation of an American cultural icon with Philadelphia literally stealing a $6 billion art collection. It will be a plum for their résumé, but also a blight on their reputation as co-conspirators in helping to destroy one of the world's great art collections, ripped from its home in Merion of 50 years, turning Albert Barnes' dream into a virtual nightmare, by digging it up and transplanting it to an "elegant" building as a glorious cover-up for the nefarious theft that has been perpetrated.

They should not participate in building this monument that will become an international disgrace and seen as an albatross that will not enhance, but sully the reputation of a city already filled with great art institutions. I ask Williams and Tsien to reconsider what is being asked of them and to stand up for the protection, not the destruction, of art.

Philip Lustig
Downingtown