[Clearwisdom.Net] On December 17, 2000, The Epoch Times (Dajiyuan) carried the following article:
"Let us remember this day. Let the voice of protest from every one of us come out. If we keep silent because we are apathetic toward such cruelty, if we keep silent because we are scared by such crimes, and if we keep silent because we are afraid of the autocrats who are against the trend of the times and we kneel down to surrender to them, we will lag further and further behind the standards of decent civilization in the world, and one day disaster will fall upon us and none of us will escape."
Today, December 15, 2000, I read the following news:
"One Falun Gong practitioner in China was severely injured when she was detained by the police, and six months later, she died at her home. She was 32-year-old Zhao Xin, a lecturer in Beijing Industry and Commerce University. Falun Gong claimed that her death was one of the many that resulted from the more than one year of persecution against Falun Gong. What made this case different was that the cause of her death was even more indisputable. On June 19, 2000, the Haidian District Branch of Beijing Police Station took Zhao Xin away when she was practicing Falun Gong at Zizhuyuan Park in Beijing. Four days later, she was brought to a Beijing hospital's emergency room. She was partially paralyzed, due to the fracture of three bones in her neck. She was in critical condition. The police refused to tell what had really happened to her. Her family members said her injury was due to brutal abuse and torment at the hands of the police while she was detained, since she refused to tell the police her name and home address."
Only because she adhered to her belief, only because her belief was not appreciated by the one or several old men in China, only because she practiced Falun Gong in a park under the blue sky of Beijing, only because she disregarded orders from those who had abused their power to illegally enact "laws" that violated the constitution, only because she did not want to give up her basic rights to which every citizen in this republic country is entitled, just as she did not want to give up her rights of breathing and singing, she, a female lecturer, was taken away by the government-dispatched police, was beaten in an unknown tiny room, sustained three broken neck bones, and died at age of 32, at the dawn of a new millenium.
We have kept silent when we face such cruelty and such crimes. We have kept silent, not because of grief or indignation, but because we are foolish and cowardly. We turned our heads away and pretended ignorance and absent-mindedness, when we knew that the Chinese government was conniving, plotting, and silently approving and condoning and even encouraging such cruelty and crimes. We turned away when we saw that the autocrats were recklessly trampling on the Constitution and laws of China, and mobilizing government and public resources to bully and persecute the weak and small. We turned away when we heard the painful cry of a female lecturer due to the brutal torture done by those who wore police uniforms. We turned away when we heard her groans before she was killed. We were busy, reading and studying books. We were busy, doing researches in libraries or laboratories. We were busy, staying away from common customs and writing up articles simply on behalf of ourselves. We were busy, doing business and making money for acquiring land and houses. We have surprisingly kept silent! For the Chinese, there is nothing that is more shameful than keeping silent!
When gods finally ended the holocaust of the Great Cultural Revolution in China 25 years ago, we as the survivors of this disaster told each other that we could not let disasters such as the Great Cultural Revolution be repeated and we have to prevent another Cultural Revolution from occurring. However, have we asked ourselves how we can prevent it from happening? Is it right that another Cultural Revolution can be prevented only after we have put some specific measures in place? What should we do when we are facing new Cultural-Revolution-type crimes?
If we have changed nothing and done nothing, and if we have kept silent at these Cultural-Revolution-type crimes, how can we say we have learned from our sufferings and torments experienced in the past and how can we say that we did not let our youth passing by for nothing?
Today, this 32-year-old female lecturer, by her example, has demonstrated to us the perpetration of the same type of government-led crimes that had occurred 30 years ago. She did this while she bore extreme suffering from her broken neck bones. She did this during and with the last breath of her young life. She again raised these painful questions in all of us.
More than thirty years ago, such cruelty and crimes had repeated themselves numerous times under the blue sky of Beijing and in other parts of China. The Communist Party in China had come to a clear decision that the Great Cultural Revolution was totally wrong. Because of this decision, we now know that cruelty and crimes that were rarely seen in human history had occurred in this land in which we have been living.
If we condemn the cruelty and crimes like those seen in the Great Cultural Revolution, if we condemn the persecution of people by autocrats, if we condemn a government that defiles the will of people, abuses its power, and violates the constitution, and if we condemn any brutal acts in which someone connives with a group of his accomplices and acquiesces in deprivation of others' right to believe and to act according to what they believe, torturing others, and trampling on the dignity of others, we should remember that Zhao Xin, a 32 year old female lecturer, died today, after brutal tortures, when the new year is coming. She died only because she has adhered to her belief.
If we, every one of us or this spiritless nation, can be revived, her death will make our souls restless. Let us remember this day. Let the voice of protest from every one of us come out. If we keep silent because we are apathetic toward such cruelty, if we keep silent because we are scared by such crimes, and if we keep silent because we are afraid of the autocrats who are against the trend of the times and if we kneel down to surrender to them, we will lag further and further behind the trends of civilization in the world, and one day disaster will fall upon us and none of us can escape.