Don’t cry, don’t cry
Dear Johnny,
Again, it’s always a pleasure reading your articles. This time I was in tears and laughing, but hey, it’s not the first time I cried over Taiwanese issues (“Don’t cry for me …”).
Now, for the first time, my hope for a better future for the Taiwanese people has vanished.
It feels like we are back when our telephone conversations were listened to and our letters were opened. And, of course, open your mouth and you are gone (Taiwanese into the “slammer” and foreigners deported).
Is that what people voted for? To have the “good old days” back? Can anyone be so stupid? So short-sighted?
Was it greed? Or did their brains not leap into the 21st century because that is what almost 50 years of brainwashing can do to you?
I guess that’s the answer.
It’s so disgusting what the prosecutors can do. Makes my hair go curly. But hey, people like it (the pan-blue people). They feast on it, and it is great fodder for the press to make up news. Gosh, where would we be without the self-righteous press?
Why doesn’t anybody arrest those crocks?
Anyway, I know why and I had to get those few lines off my chest. Not that it helps. We’ve been talking about the same subject for the last 34 years.
Anyway, thanks for your inspiring articles. They’re hilarious at times, serious, cynical and very educational.
Anna Chang
Taipei
Dear Johnny,
Don’t cry for me, Argentina? Cry for the good people of Taiwan!
Apparently, now a citizen of Taiwan can be held in solitary confinement while prosecutors investigate to see if the individual has done something wrong.
Man, talk about iron fist! This is what happens when a country comes under siege by a group of power-hungry oafs.
The signatories of the second open letter hit the nail on the head (“Eroding justice: Open letter No. 2,” Dec. 2, page 8). I hope the letter gets a complete translation and is pasted on every wall in Taiwan … you know, with that sticky rice homemade paste. Nothing bought from the land of poison across the Taiwan Strait.
Listen carefully Taiwan, now, be quiet and listen. You can hear the flight of freedom from your island.
Look over there: Can you see the KMT thugs banging cymbals and lighting firecrackers to frighten away the freedoms so dearly won by years of sacrifice and hard work?
There is no prison that can keep freedom from a people that desire it. There is no government that can deny human rights to its people if the people really want them. There is no police force that can turn on its own people, its uncles, its cousins, its fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters if the police have honor and filial piety.
Taiwan, there is hope for a better future. There is a way to light up even the darkest night. When the torch of freedom burns low, it is time to refuel that torch.
Refuel the torch of freedom for Taiwan with calls for the KMT to start behaving like a civilized government, not an enslaver of people. Exercise your freedoms by writing and talking about the changes in the government you want to see.
Do not be afraid: The next generation depends on your actions today.
A Texan
Johnny replies: Oh no, I’ve run another letter with excessive praise. Consider it a down payment for when I’m locked up in Taiyuan Prison in Taitung with my buddy “Knuckles” Chiang from Chiayi and five other luckless chaps in a cell fit for two for daring to speak out against Sinofellatio (actually, “Knuckles” would be in jail for beating a Chinese tourist for laughing at his karaoke version of Peach Blossom Weeps Tears of Blood).
Anna, at the risk of being disrespectful, might I suggest that arresting self-righteous “crocks” in the media would leave the industry with no reporters, no editors, no managers, no advertising executives and no income?
Be easy on us, OK?
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