The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 5, 2001 Page: 3 of 30
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RECORD
THURSDAY 5 APRIL 2001
2
opinion
page
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China’s expose
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|0R THE SECOND straight year, China has re-
I sponded to the U.S. State Department’s admira-
bly candid report on human rights abuses in China
by releasing a report of its own. “U.S. Human Rights
Record in 2000,” which Chinese officials evidently
consider a scathing rebuttal, ranges in its accusa-
tions from the questionably sourced (“Nearly 2 mil-
lion aboriginals were living on streets of big cities in
the United States” to the less-than-shocking (“Col-
lege tuition has grown faster than the increase of
middle class families’ income”) to the true if familiar
(“The excessive number of privately owned guns has
resulted in countless gun-related assaults, resulting
in tragedy for many innocent people”). What’s most
striking about this juvenile exercise, though, is that
almost all the sources for China’s expose are Ameri-
can—and that this contrast with China doesn’t seem
to have occurred to the report’s authors.
The Chinese report reveals, for example, that the
influence of money is a problem for American de-
mocracy. Its source: the Washington-based Center
for Responsive Politics. Larry Makinson, quoted in
the report, is still a free citizen. Compare his fate
with that of An Jun, who set up a nongovernmental
organization “critical of official corruption,” as the
U.S. report recounts, and was sentenced last year to
four years’ imprisonment for subversion. Or to that
of Li Lusong of Shanxi Province, who complained
about a dilapidated local school. “Li was kicked and
beaten by the police. He later posted comments crit-
ical of corruption. After he posted the comments, lo-
cal police detained him and used a stun gun and
pliers to pull out his tongue and cut it off with a
knife," the State Department reports.
The Chinese report also cites many U.S. newspa-
pers and magazines, including The Post (for writing
that racial segregation persists in residential areas).
The Post, and the other news sources cited by the
Chinese, still publish. In China, according to the
State Department, “The government continued to
close down publications and punish journalists for
printing material deemed too sensitive....Journalists
were harassed, detained and threatened....joumalist
Gao Qinrong reportedly was sentenced to 13 years in
prison after writing a story that appeared in 1998 on
corruption in connection with the construction of an
irrigation system.”
The most frequently cited sources in the Chinese
report are U.S. officials: the Justice Department on
incarceration rates and abuse of prisoners, the Agri-
culture Department on malnutrition, the Confer-
ence of Mayors on homelessness. Many of the
problems described are real and deplorable. When
Chinese citizens can publicly deplore their own
problems, their government’s criticism of others will
carry more weight.
field Notes Continued
know quite how we managed to preserve the peace cited this controversy? Sheriff Dean Butcher re-
so long, given the apparent legal impediments Mr. ported a brown and white dog running at large near
Sparks has found to our doing so. the Cat’s Paw earlier this week. The Animal Control
All Attorney General’s opinions aside, logic die- Officer took it into custody, where it will remain until
tates that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” But if some- its owners pay those fines which have accrued
body is determined to say it is broke, then for God’s against it
sake, let’s do—and quickly. At least that got fixed.
Oh, by the way...the dog whose errant ways in-
A
round Our School
The Governing Body
______If Iiteria CHI UperiitHtot Jls Mlirl____
EVERY CANDIDATE for election to a governing body has some
ideas about what they want to see done. Inexperienced candidates can
often be identified by making hard, fast statements about what is
wrong with the organization, and what they will do when elected. Say-
ing such things as “I will say just what I think,” and “I won’t be a rubber
stamp,” can identify these candidates. That is good. They should do
those things. What they fail to recognize is that most members of a gov-
erning body do those exact same things. They just have learned to do so
at the appropriate place and time.
Experienced members of any governing body have learned one
thing: they have just one vote. To make things work, it takes more than
saying just what one thinks or not being a rubber stamp. To make
things work, the effective member of a governing body must be able to
articulate a vision and to persuade others to join in that vision, and be
willing to compromise certain points to reach the vision.
The new member of a governing body needs a year just to see how
the organization evolves. The inexperienced member of the body must
learn how to operate in such a setting. It can be a very humbling experi-
ence. The saying that children should be seen and not heard makes a lot
of sense for the first-year member.
The community needs young people to serve on the city council, hos-
pital board and school board. Young people keep the community vital.
This requires inexperienced candidates to seek election to these gov-
erning bodies. Inexperienced candidates become experienced mem-
bers of governing bodies who have learned how to make things work.
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 5, 2001, newspaper, April 5, 2001; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth520006/m1/3/: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hemphill County Library.