From: nguyen@drutx.ATT.COM (Christopher Chu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african,soc.culture.filipino,soc.culture.taiwan,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.vietnamese,soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: [SOC] PETITION FOR LUYEN NGUYEN
Summary: The intention of our petition
Date: 13 Sep 92 17:21:43 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Denver, Colorado


Dear Laurance Godfrey:

Thank you for raising your question about the intention of our petition.
Since I am the coordinator for this petition, I would like to take this
opportunity to answer you question.

In our petition, we distinguished between thoughts of racial hatred and
barbaric behaviors that could kill innocent people; we believe that the
latter is too dangerous for all of us to be ignored. We informed netters
about the brutal beating death of Mr. Luyen Phan Nguyen so we all can
start to think seriously about ways to protect ourselves and our children
for similar situations.

We wanted to let all netters know that there are American civilians who
seriously concerned about the brutal beating death of an innocent American
citizen. Our petition represented our practical actions with respect to
US law. While the verdicts from our court for this case have not been
established, the indictments requested in our petition represented what we
firmly believed should be the punishment for the individuals who killed Mr.
Luyen Phan Nguyen.

We did not write our petition for personal revenge. On the contrary,
we believe that it is not only the American justice system but also the
American society members who share the responsibility in making this society
a better place for all of us to live. Our voices represented a serious
exercise of the American democracy. We are a group of the American society
members who do not accept the disregards of law and order and we are fully
capable of making our stance known to all people.

We posted our petition for interested netters who would like to express
their objection or similar concerns. We wanted to share our concerns and
learn from others theirs. Most importantly, we would like to know how we
all feel about the beating death of Mr. Luyen Phan Nguyen and what we think
should be done about it. Your question and our petition letter are the
representative examples that have effectively served these communication
purposes.

In order to make our civil rights exercise to be more comprehensible,
I would like for you to really consider an imaginary but equitable scenario.
Imagine that you wake up tomorrow morning and find that you were born
to have the yellow skin and were a college student! Then, in a college
party, there were slurs directed at you because of your skin color.
Should you object? Be careful! If you did, you might have been beaten
and killed just like what had happened to Mr. Luyen Phan Nguyen!

If you think that the imaginary replay of a real life story above - an
impartial scenario with respect to civil rights, where you were the main
character who got beaten and killed - is still not worth your time to
discuss it with the American people and U.S. officials, then please
educate me what would.

Again, I want thank you for raising your question and for providing me
with this opportunity to make clear our intention of posting. I look forward
to discuss further concerns and questions that you may still have about our
petition against the beating death of Mr. Luyen Phan Nguyen.

Sincerely Yours,
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Christopher Chu                     Voice: (303)538-3714
AT&T Bell Laboratories              Fax:   (303)538-3564
11900N Pecos Street                 Email: nguyen@drutx.ATT.COM (Internet)
Denver, Colorado 80234                     att!drutx!nguyen     (UUCP)

Disclaimer: the above opinions, comments, advices, suggestions, or ideas
are my own. In this mail, I am NOT representing or speaking on behalf of
AT&T or the Bell Laboratories.
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+------------------------ Begin forwarded article ---------------------------+
| From: godfrey@sscvx1.ssc.gov (LAURENCE GODFREY)                            |
| Newsgroups: soc.culture.african,soc.culture.filipino,soc.culture.taiwan,so |
| c.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.vietnamese               |
| Subject: Re: [SOC] PETITION FOR LUYEN NGUYEN                               |
| Message-ID: <12SEP199212433448@sscvx1.ssc.gov>                             |
| Date: 12 Sep 92 18:43:00 GMT                                               |
| References: <1992Sep11.034828.4288@news.media.mit.edu>                     |
|             <20269@drutx.ATT.COM> <20279@drutx.ATT.COM>                    |
|                                                                            |
| In article <20279@drutx.ATT.COM>, nguyen@drutx.ATT.COM (Christopher Chu)   |
| writes...                                                                  |
|                                                                            |
| >Dear Netters,                                                             |
| >                                                                          |
| >During the last few days, I have been building a list of petitioners who  |
| >will share a petition letter against the beating death of Mr. Nguyen Phan |
| >Nguyen. This petition is a follow-up of my original and individual        |
| >protest letter that was sent to 28 of U.S. officials last week. If you    |
| >feel that the petition that we plan to send should also go to other       |
| >officials and agencies, please provide me with names and addresses and I  |
| >will send the final version of the petition with a separate note to them. |
|                                                                            |
| Whilst I'm sure your intentions are good, I don't understand the point in  |
| this petition.  Presumably the guilty party(ies) will be punished under    |
| US law - what possible difference would a petition make?  Do you believe   |
| that they will not be prosecuted?  Maybe I've missed something             |
|                                                                            |
| Laurence                                                                   |
+------------------------- End forwarded article ----------------------------+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african