To the Editor:
In your article you are distressed about a lack of fact checking. So I am wondering what makes you say, “Falun Gong is an anti-communist religious cult.” Only the Chinese communist government calls Falun Gong a cult, why do you use that term, and have you checked the facts?
Falun Gong practitioners in China have been subjected to the most brutal, deadly persecution for the past 12 years by that very Chinese government. Falun Gong never said anything against the Chinese government from 1992 when it became public, until after 1999 when the persecution started. They just exercised and meditated and tried to live a life based on truthfulness, compassion, tolerance. But former head of state Jiang Zemin, apparently threatened by the growing number of Chinese citizens following ancient spiritual traditions instead of communist atheist theories, gave orders in 1999 to “eradicate” them.
To date over 3,427 Falun Gong deaths from torture and abuse in China’s jails, labor camps, and brainwashing centers have been documented, as well as over 60,000 accounts of torture. An estimate of the real figure puts the actual death toll in the tens of thousands according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. Popular torture techniques include shocking with electric batons, burning with irons, tying the body in painful positions for days, force-feeding saline solutions through a plastic tube inserted up the nose, and prying out fingernails with bamboo shoots, to name a few; rape and sexual torture of the Falun Gong in detention are prevalent as well.
Wouldn’t you agree that under this type of treatment, Falun Gong practitioners should speak out against the Chinese regime’s criminal acts. “Anti-communist” is not quite the correct term to describe that sentiment, I think. You can check the facts here: Falun Dafa Information Center http://www.faluninfo.net/ and here: World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/INDEX.PHP and here: http://www.organharvestinvestigation.net/
Gisela Sommer
San Diego
To the Editor:
Whats the difference between providing mail service to residents of a hotel or employees of a business? People receive personal mail at their place of employment all the time and it gets delivered to an office where an employee handles it and makes decisions on what to do with it upon delivery. That employee is no different than the 3rd party hotel clerk. He or she could rifle the mail just the same as the hotel clerk. nobodies up in arms about that. If you dont like it, get a P.O. box.
Donald Strausburg
Casstown, OH
EDITOR’S NOTE: People don’t live at their place of business, whereas SRO Hotels are the housing of last resort for a very vulnerable population who has nowhere else to go. And they can’t afford to get a P.O. Box.
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