Deng Condolences

On Feb. 25, I attended a board of trustees meeting at the North Orange County Community College District with the sole purpose of supporting the faculty’s stalled salary negotiations.

What I saw filled me with shock and disgust: the district’s formal condolences on the death of Deng Xiaoping.

The rationale for this horrific commiseration was an extension of a Fullerton College sister-city program that involved mundane student and teacher exchanges between Fullerton College and some obscure college in China.

Unlike a government, a college has the luxury of taking a moral stand. In fact, this may be one of the basic philosophical objectives of an institution of higher learning. What are we communicating to our students when we formally acknowledge with “regret” the death of Deng?

This modern tyrant ordered his government troops to crush pro-democracy students--killing hundreds and injuring thousands--at Tiananmen Square.

This act of extreme barbarism was followed by widespread arrests, summary trials and executions, and strictly controlled press releases to mollify a censorious world.

I can still see the young faces of idealistic Chinese students willing to die for democracy. They died, and Deng died, but the brutal, repressive government of China continues to exist, and the college district, through incompetence or sheer ignorance, sent this regime its compliments.

While I expect a shallow explication of the sister-city program, I can rest tonight knowing that I did not remain silent.

CHARLES J. LICARI

Fullerton