A Teachable Moment
A Brief Update On Your Success
Peter Zeidenberg, the lawyer who successfully defended Sherry Chen and Dr. Xiaoxing Xi was honored; $18,000 was donated to Sherry Chen on Feb. 16 in D.C. The event was organized by 80-20 Edu. Foundation, New Asian Leaders and National Council of Chinese Americans. About 140 persons attended the dinner, and another 40 donated but didn't attend. This kind of event makes our community stronger, and makes our children more proud of themselves.
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When Officer Peter Liang's case was first reported in Jan. last year, 80-20 smelled something fishy. As a result, 80-20 sent out an e-newsletter "Indictment against Peter Liang politically motivated?" Click here to read it.
We did much more. We talked to Liang's first lawyer (Steve Worth), and Liang's two confidants - Doug Lee of NY and Bona Sun of NJ. However, according to Doug, Peter Liang didn't want to talk to us on the phone. So I offered to travel to NYC to talk to him in a restaurant. You know what? Liang backed out of that meeting although I took a specific trip to NYC. After that 80-20 washed its hands of Liang's case. We couldn't help anyone who didn't want our help.
This is a teachable moment. A lot of people still don't want 80-20's help even today, EXCEPT when they are in real trouble. 80-20 is NOT that powerful. We can't jump in to help at the last moment, when the situation is really bad.
We still fervently hope that the other orgs. will be effective in helping Liang, because his convictions are drastically different from those from earlier trials involving police officers. Liang will be sentenced in April, and one of his lawyers said that there could be an appeal.
However, 80-20 is not prepared to help Peter Liang today. People have to learn that their actions have consequences - a necessary step in our community's political maturity and self-empowerment movement.
Think long-term! If someone could repeatedly refuse our help, and if 80-20 still jumps in to help at the last moment, it'll set a bad precedent.
These Board Members Help Make 80-20 EF Strong:
Alice Huang of Pasadena, CA
Henry Lee of NYC, NY
S. K. Lo of Edina, MN
Kathleen To of Georgetown, TX
Jing-Li Yu of Long Island, NY
Wei-jing Zhu (EF Treasurer) of Palo Alto, CA
I am most grateful to them. I think your are too.
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S. B. Woo
President and a volunteer for the past 17 years
80-20 Initiative, Inc.
PS: Some of you misinterpreted 80-20's last e-newsletter as supporting Sri for
nomination to the Supreme Court. NO. 80-20 is neutral at this point. We
are simply reporting to you the politics of a Supreme Court Nomination,
using the possible nomination of Sri as an example.
View a GREAT 3-part video about AsAms:
