I just returned to Orange County from a visit to Palisades Park overlooking the Santa Monica Pier on a sunny and mild spring day.  The occasion?  The Global Human Rights Torch Relay.  Participants included people representing the Tibetan Association of Southern California, the Los Angeles Friends of Tibet, Falun Gong practitioners, the island nation of Taiwan, and members of the press (including KNX Newsradio).  There may have been a "representative" or two from the consulate of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles on hand to monitor the event as well.

Members of Congress Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) addressed the crowd, as did David Matas, a human rights attorney, and myself.

Before I spoke, I chatted with Congresswoman Waters and thanked her for attending the event and for her principled stand against eminent domain abuses.  We agreed that both efforts share the common aspect of protecting the powerless from their own government. 

Across the Atlantic today the Olympic torch drew protests in London where one British protester summed up his thoughts at the sight of the Olympic torch being carried though the capital by British sports stars and protected by Chinese security men, "What really got my goat was our sporting heroes being surrounded by the Chinese security heavies guarding the torch," he said. "It makes us complicit in the regime's repression." (The New York Times covered this story.)

Closer to home, I told the crowd of the fate of Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee's (R-San Luis Obispo) Assembly Concurrent Resolution 119 which marks "Tibet Day." ACR 119 is bottled up by Assemblymember Ted Lieu's (D-El Segundo) Rules Committee, with the Democratic leadership in Sacramento refusing to allow a vote on the measure due to its controversy.

ACR 119 marks the People's Republic of China "...egregious violations of human rights including the repression of political, civic, and religious groups such as Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Falun Gong practitioners, Muslims, democracy advocates, labor organizers, lawyers, journalists, environmental activists, political dissidents, and other innocent people; the illegal harvesting of vital body organs and coercive third-trimester abortions; the perpetuation of slave labor camps; and the deprivation of basic fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, and religious beliefs..."  This may be controversial - but the truth often is.

David Matas is the senior legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada.  Sadly, other than the people most directly affected by the brutal, totalitarian regime in Beijing, there were few other groups represented at the event.  This stunning lack of apparent widespread concern will weigh heavy on my mind in a few weeks when we stop to remember the Holocaust perpetuated by Nazi Germany on the Assembly floor.

All the best,

Chuck DeVore
California State Assemblyman, 70th District
www.chuckdevore.com