方伟老师在课中说，“有朝一日，美国的四百万华人，可以变成早期美国公民那样的人，对于美国的宪法、传统和价值，了若指掌，成为维护和恢复美国的中坚力量。” 这句话非常激励人。我昨天去参选town里registrar of voters，我和民主党候选人都在town议会上发言一分钟，结果我全票当选，我的演讲都是这些日子跟方伟老师学习美国宪法和立国原则的心得。我将服务三年任期，明年总统大选，我至少可以看住自己的小town，不让舞弊有可乘之机。

Many thanks for what you do, esp. the great efforts in doing the Series to help educate Chinese Americans and relearn the U.S. founding documents and principles. It's so true that without learning the history and basic education, the citizens are not prepared to participate in exercising their rights in the Republic. We have to save the education in order to save America.

方偉老師好,

你在本週三的“圍爐夜話”中所說的一番話深深的打動了我，促使我向我的眾議員和兩位參議員寫了一份為 一 月 六 日囚犯伸張正義的呼籲。 我想與你和你的觀眾分享我寫的內容如下:

Manuel Tsiang (蔣人吉)


Honorable Kevin Mullin,

The release of all the surveillance footage of January 6th by Speaker McCarthy has opened my eyes to what really happened on that day. As a result, the falling apart of the January 6th Committee’s false narrative has also forced me to learn about the plight of the January 6th prisoners. The great majority of those close to 1000 prisoners were arrested and detained for already over 2 years without any trial date set. What is their “crime”? They were simply being found inside the Capitol building, also referred to as the People’s House, after the Capitol police removed the barricades and waved them in.

These are God-fearing patriotic Americans. They were not violent and did not break anything. Yet, they are detained under deplorable conditions, physically battered and mocked by the guards, while others were denied medication and treatment for serious medical conditions. At least one committed suicide during detention as a result of desperation and despondency. All their Constitutional Rights to due process and humane treatment have been violated. When some eventually got tried, the so-called evidence used against them were never shared with them and their lawyers while exculpatory evidence were withheld from them by the Department of Justice. Many were forced to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit in exchange for a lighter sentence. During trial, they face a hostile judge and a totally biased jury whose mind has been already made. A trial venue other than Washington D.C. must be used for these defendants to ensure fairness. In addition, increasing evidence points to likely entrapments by FBI agents disguised as rally goers. A great injustice has been perpetrated on them. Their treatment is unconscionable and un-American. This is not the America that I have known, the Constitutional Republic which abides by the Rule of Law. Instead of a fair and speedy trial every accused is entitled to, the treatment these January 6th prisoners were subjected to, is more reminiscent of the extrajudicial treatment of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Communist China. It really pains me to see that our judicial system has been politicized and degenerated into tyranny. Many Chinese-Americans are appalled by the way this Justice Department treated the January 6th prisoners, as it painfully reminded them of the horrendous Communist regime they had experienced first-hand and escaped from.

Mr. Mullin, Do you love America? Do you want America to remain Free and Just? If you do, I want you as my representative to visit these January 6th prisoners in detention and talk to them, so that you can see for yourself the injustice perpetrated on them. After that, I want you to use the full power of your office to work with your colleagues in the Committee on Oversight and Accountability to hold every officer of this DOJ, especially those in a leadership position, personally accountable for their egregious trampling of the Constitutional rights of the January 6th prisoners. Politicization has no place in a federal agency that is supposed to administer justice. Speaker McCarthy has taken a good bold first step to right the wrong that has been done, by releasing all the January 6th footage. It is now up to you and the rest of the House to finish the job by rendering justice to all January 6th prisoners who were wronged and by enacting legislation to prevent the Executive Branch from ever descending into despotism again.

Sincerely,
Manuel Tsiang