(Helen Lin's letter to Dallas city mayor Ron Kirk)

March 4, 1997
Dear Mayor Kirk:

My name is Helen Lin. I was at the February 26 city council meeting
with Ms. Pearl Tang, Mr. Paul Huang and other Taiwanese to petition
for proclaiming February 28 as "Taiwan Peace Day".  To our deepest
regret, we couldn't change your mind, but we really appreciated the
special recognition signed by ten council members who were present
in the meeting.

Being a minority yourself, I thought you could easily understand
the experience we Taiwanese suffered under Nationalist Chinese, who
fled to Taiwan after being defeated by Communist Chinese. On February
28, 1947 those Chinese arrested and massacred about 20,000 Taiwanese
people when an island-wide protest erupted against the oppression by
the Chiang Kai-shek regime. What followed was a world record of 40
years of martial law and "White Terror" campaign.  For a long time
my husband was not allowed to visit his parents in Taiwan simply
because he advocated democracy and freedom for Taiwan in this country.

I understand you visited South Africa not too long ago and paid your
respect to Mr. Mandela. The situation in Taiwan during this dark
period was exactly the same as the Apartheid in South Africa--the
native majority were oppressively ruled by a foreign minority.

I live in Plano. The night when the City of Plano proclaimed this
2-28 as "Taiwan Peace Day", I was there to receive this honor from
the hands of our Mayor Longstreet.  I was very touched by the fact
that I received this proclamation right after two African American
ladies received theirs for February as "Black History Month". In
this black history month, my son and I have learned together at his
school about black people's history. The truth of history must be
told and learned, and only then the past tragedy will not be repeated
again.

When you were elected to be the first black mayor in Dallas city
history, we Taiwanese community were thrilled and happy for having
a civic leader from the minority.  I hope you will pay more attention
to Taiwanese community from now on.  If you are interested in finding
out our concerns, we will be glad to meet with you at your convenience.

        Sincerely yours,

        Helen Lin

P. S.  We had a very successful 50th Anniversary Memorial Service of
"2-28 Massacre" on this past Friday February 28, attended by dignitaries
from Dallas and Collin counties. Congressman Pete Sessions also sent
his assistant there to read his speech made in the Congressional
Record. Your friend, Mr. Charles Ku, really had nothing to do with this
event, which was held by TAA(Taiwanese American Association). Mr. Ku
knows fully well that he is the oppressor(Chinese) and we are the
oppressed(Taiwanese). Also, in your letter to him, it is an insult to
address us as "Chinese-Americans" or "Chinese community", as I am sure
you do not want to be mistaken as a white either.