Update: Apparently, contrary to what Benny Lee said, there were never any plans to raise the PRC flag at the Alameda City Hall.
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From the Tibetan National Congress
The City of Alameda plans to raise the Chinese flag on Oct 1 to celebrate the Chinese National Day and Mao Zedong.
Last week, we successfully suspended the flag raising in the City of San Leandro.
Please call/email/fax Alameda’s Mayor Marie Gilmore and ask her not to taint her city:
Phone: (510) 747-4701
Fax: (510) 865-1498
Email: mgilmore@ci.alameda.ca.us
OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR GILMORE
September 25th, 2013
It has come to our attention that the City of Alameda will be raising the Communist flag of China on Oct 1st, the Chinese National Day — to celebrate Mao Zedong’s brutal and bloody victory to rule China, which came by way of unleashing unimaginable pain and misery onto millions of Chinese citizens.
The flag represents a government that ran tanks over their own children who were protesting peacefully in Tiananmen Square in 1989. For others, like Tibetans and Uighurs, it represents a symbol of occupation of their homeland and unremitting oppression as countless innocent citizens are arbitrarily imprisoned, routinely tortured, and even executed without proper representation. 121 Tibetans in Tibet have self-immolated to protest this extreme racist and cruel strategy to annihilate the very traces of Tibetans on the plateau. Falun Gong practitioners, one of the most peaceful religious organizations in the world, are routinely rounded up, persecuted, and their organs harvested to be sold to the west.
Chinese Christians are also harassed, their Bibles confiscated and their churches destroyed. Closer to home, for many American Veterans of the Korean and Vietnamese wars, this flag represents the force that put their friends and fellow soldiers into the ground in the name of Communism. And for many unemployed Americans, it represents the regime that uses espionage, currency manipulation and trade abuses to rob them of their jobs.
Earlier this week, the City of San Leandro, due to strong public objection and petitions, decided to suspend a similar flag raising ceremony scheduled for October 1st. We were very pleased and grateful that the leadership made the conscientious decision to listen to the impassioned opposition to the proposal; and proved that America is still a country that stands for democracy, freedom of speech and thought, and equality for all. As long as China remains an oppressive regime which denies all that we in America take for granted as our basic human rights, we cannot display the red communist flag least we devalue the very spirit that has wrought this great country.
We urge the honorable Mayor Marie Gilmore and the respected members of the City Council to follow the stellar example set by the City of San Leandro and vote to suspend the decision to raise the flag until further deliberations are entertained and public voices are heard on this matter.
Your’s Sincerely,
Jigme Ugen
President
This post comes to you thanks to San Leandro Council Member Benny Lee