DENVER—Young and old, from all walks of life, turned out in Cheesman Park in Denver to participate in National Awareness Week for the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR). Activities included a 5-km walk/run and a rally.
Approximately 100 people ran and walked for human rights in China on Saturday morning, Oct. 27, as part of an international, grassroots effort to focus the spotlight on the Chinese regime's crimes against humanity.
Colorado HRTR coordinator Jim Fogarty introduced the HRTR—a campaign that aims to bring an end to all human rights abuses against the people of China, while highlighting the persecution of Falun Gong, the most severely persecuted group in China today, according to an HRTR flier.
Fogarty announced that the Human Rights Torch would arrive in Colorado in April 2008 on its journey to 37 cities, on five continents, in the months preceding the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He said that the HRTR was founded on the premise that "the Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist in China."
Tibetans who participated in the rally expressed their hopes for a free Tibet. The president of the Tibetan Association of Colorado, Tenzing Jigme Shrestha, said: "Since 1959, the nation of Tibet has suffered a great deal due to the illegal occupation of our country by the Chinese government. We have witnessed the destruction of our culture, our land, and our people. Our freedom was taken away by the Chinese government … and we hope very soon that Tibet will be a free country."
Andrew Romanoff, Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives and a champion of human rights, told the audience, "We don't want the 2008 games to be known as 'The Genocide Olympics.'"
He reminded the audience of Martin Luther King's words: "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Mr. Romanoff said there were three reasons we ought to care about the injustices committed by the regime in China: "One is what the government is doing to its own people and to other people in the region. The treatment of Falun Gong, the treatment of Tibetans, the treatment of political dissidents is an affront to humanity and cannot be allowed to continue. That's one reason we ought to care.
"The second is what the Chinese government is doing around the world: its support for other repressive regimes in Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Myanmar [also called Burma].
"And finally, I believe that what the government of China is doing is in many ways threatening our claim to call ourselves a civilization. You and I live on a fragile planet, and it seems to me, as long as some people are not allowed to enjoy the blessings of freedom and basic human rights, then we lose the ability to call ourselves a civilized planet. I think that itself is a crime.
"As the slogan puts it, 'One world one dream.' It seems to me that slogan will ring hollow as long as China continues to persecute its own citizens, continues to occupy Tibet, continues to support repressive regimes around the world."
Epoch Times staffer Andy Ellsmore said that The Epoch Times is a strong advocate for freedom of belief and for human rights for all people. "The human rights torch relay is an excellent opportunity for people to come together to support human rights and freedom and to recognize the atrocities that are currently happening in China," he said.
Dr. Carol Ferguson spoke on behalf of Falun Gong practitioners in Colorado. She called out for an end to the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
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