Diplomat James Patterson at Falun Gong Art Exhibition in California

Diplomat James Patterson and The Art of Zhen Shan Ren at Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Fremont California.

 

The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners impact me on many levels. Senior members of the Metropolitan Community Church in San Francisco told me in the early 1970s police photographed them as they entered the church to worship. My friends told me the photos were to be sent to the FBI. I have heard the voices and looked into the eyes of senior gay men who experienced this religious persecution for their faith and their sexuality in the United States and in LGBT-tolerant San Francisco.

 

I am also sensitive to the plight of Falun Gong children who witness the persecution and beatings of their parents. As a youth in segregation-era Alabama, I saw racial violence and the pain on the faces of those beaten due to their race and their children. These painful memories bother me still and wake me at night.

 

My late daughter, Alexandra Baker Patterson, was born with cardiac disability. She needed a heart transplant. She  never got it. She lived to ne 17. In China, a heart transplant can be done within days. According to Falun Gong practitioners I have spoken  with in California and independent documented cases presented to me by Israeli and Japanese physicians, organs are sourced from Falun Gong prisoners and, in some cases, from Falun Gong children.

 

In order to enter the Foreign Service, I had to take a loyalty oath to never criticize US government policy. It was US government policies that placed Japanese Americans in "prison camps" during World War II. It was US government policy, segregation, that led to the arrest of Nobel Prize winning religious leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. near my childhood home in Alabama.

 

 It is still US government policy to segregate and marginalize Native Americans and provide them with dreadful healthcare on disgraceful reservations, where cigarettes, liquor and gambling are the major pastimes. It was a failure of US government policy that led to the horror of Vietnam and endless mental health cases in the US and Vietnam. Vietnam vets have told me of the extreme sexual abuse of young Vietnamese women and girls. It was failure of US government policy by several administrations to ignore human rights abuses of the former Soviet Union, China, Haiti, Ferdinand  Marcos, the Shah of Iran, and many others. How could one not criticize the US government? Diplomat, to have any credibility at foreign posts, should be encouraged to speak truth. Else, they look and sound like fools.

 

In sum, I used diplomatic and government speak to answer my "final and critical" Foreign Service question about "never criticizing US government policy." I spoke strongly about US government policies I agreed with and diplomatically "left the door open" on US government atrocities.  It is a US government atrocity today to ignore the plight of Falun Gong and their children.

 

As I told the Epoch Times, China and Chinese businesses are investing across the US, including California and Alabama. Clearly, China wants US dollars and a presence in the US. That means China and, its honorable Ambassador in Washington, must listen to the American people and take action to stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

 

 

 

Diplomat James Patterson with "House Raid" by artist Chongqi Yao (Oakland, CA) 20o8. The canvas depicts arrest of a mother as her innocent child looks out to the world for an answer to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Diplomat James Patterson with a canvas titled "An Orphan's Sorrow" on exhibit August 1-30 at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery in Fremont California.

 

 

Diplomat James Patterson with a canvas titled "Homeless" one of several canvases in the exhibit The Art of Zhen Shan Ren: Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Fremont, California. The canvases depict real stories of Falun Gong practitioners: savage suffering, triumphant and inspiring courage, and enduring beauty, especially the canvases of children and others waiting for an end to the senseless persecution by the Chinese government.

For more information see www.falunart.org.

James Patterson, Diplomat
Life Member American Foreign Service Association
James Patterson is a diplomat for disabled children and people with HIV/AIDS, perceived or real.
JEPDiplomat@gmail.com

Diplomat James Patterson Reviews Camp David and Jimmy Carter's Diplomatic Wisdom

This Camp David program signed by President Jimmy Carter arrived in the mail. It was a great production at Area Stage. I have posted below a review from a George newspaper earlier this year. Photo of me at the production at bottom.

Carter’s Georgia Wisdom at Camp David

James Patterson

Washington , DC At the LBJ Presidential Library sponsored Civil Rights Summit in April, former President Jimmy Carter spoke warmly of the historical drama Camp David, a Washington play based on his personal diplomacy that brought peace to the Middle East during the second year of his presidency.

While in Washington in May, I saw the final performance of the excellent production and I suspect you will see it soon on a cable channel. Richard Thomas and Hallie Foote are convincing as President and Mrs. Carter. Ron Rifkin as Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Khaled Nabawy as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat are less convincing in their roles. The play was directed by Molly Smith.

Camp David is set at the Maryland presidential retreat over 13 days in September 1978. During those days Carter used his natural Georgia wisdom and deep religious faith to negotiate an important peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

Playwright Lawrence Wright has superbly captured the intensity of the negotiations between the three leaders. The play is about negotiation and diplomacy and Wright succeeds in dramatizing the intricacies of these notoriously non-entertaining subjects.

One of Camp David’s best scenes takes place early in the play. On a darkened stage, a spotlight focuses on Sadat as he prays for peace in Egyptian with another spotlight on Begin as he prays for peace in Hebrew and another spotlight shines on Carter as he prays for peace in English.

It is a fascinating scene of three men from three religions seeking a single purpose to a problem based on religion. The scene illustrates the complexity of the task before the three men.

It is also early in the play when Begin reminds Carter there has been no peace between Israel and Egypt in 2,000 years. In the 30 years before Camp David the two nations had warred five times including the so-called 1969/70 War of Attrition.  The international stakes escalated during each war and led to the historic 1973 Arab oil embargo which caused severe economic and political problems for President Richard Nixon.

Historically, Camp David occurred while the U.S. economy suffered with high unemployment, record inflation and record interest rates. Carter also realized his brother Billy had mismanaged the family peanut business in Plains, Georgia. The president had major political and personal problems as he patiently negotiated with Begin and Sadat. There were other problems as well.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo alerted Carter’s Secretary of State Cyrus Vance that Egyptian government officials had issued assassination orders to Sadat’s Egyptian security detail at Camp David. They feared Sadat would concede too much to Begin in a peace deal. Carter had to provide Sadat Secret Service security against the Egyptian president’s own security detail.

The stakes at Camp David were high and the risks great. Each leader wanted to end terrorist violence in the region that had spread to other parts of the world. There was then, as there is now, the possibility of nuclear war in the region. In 1978 nuclear conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R .was a threat. Today, Iran is the nuclear threat in the region.

The Camp David peace talks nearly broke down several times as Sadat brought the Palestinians into the talks and Begin threatened to walk out. The Israeli Prime Minister insisted the Palestinians were not at the bargaining table and he refused to permit Sadat to advance the Palestinian cause at his expense.

The Camp David Peace Accord between Israel and Egypt is one of the great diplomatic accomplishments of the 20^th century thanks almost entirely to President Jimmy Carter with an occasional assist from a concerned Mrs. Carter.

In one scene, as Carter is in a shouting match with his guests, Mrs. Carter steps out of the presidential cottage and offers a cheerful, loud and helpful, “How’s the peacemaking going?”  It breaks the tension, causes the leaders to offer their equally cheerful responses to her and reminds them of their purpose.

According to Wright, “The Middle East, from distant times till now, is a cautionary story of the failure of war to impose a lasting and just peace. There is never a perfect time or ideal people to bring an end to bloody conflicts; and unlike the talent for war, the ability to make peace has always been rare.”

At the LBJ Library, Carter dramatically related the highpoint of Camp David. Sadat and Begin angry at each other angrily gave Carter one last chance to find peace. Seemingly without hope, Carter found a way.

The world premiere of Camp David reportedly drew an impressive array of Washington political and diplomatic powerbrokers.  President and Mrs. Carter had front row seats. Mr. Carter, now 90, I am told by reliable sources, cried during the performance.

Camp David is a fine artistic and historic tribute to Jimmy Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for using his Georgia wisdom, gentle demeanor, and religious faith to succeed where so many others failed.

Longtime Washington diplomat James Patterson is a San Francisco-based writer and speaker. 

Diplomat James Patterson at 2014 Williem E. Simon Lecture in Public Affairs sponsored by Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation

Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, gave a great speech at the William E. Simon Lecture in Public Affairs sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation on July 14, 2014, in Grand rapids at the Amway Grand Hotel.

Baker served as the nation's 61st Secretary of State from January 1989 through August 1992. He traveled to 90 foreign countries as the U.S. confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post-Cold War era.

Mr. Baker's public service began in 1975 as Under Secretary of Commerce to President Gerald R. Ford. It concluded with his service as White House Chief of Staff and Senior Counselor to President George H. W. Bush from August 1992 to January 1992.

Mr. Baker's memoir - Work Hard, Study ... Keep Out of Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life - was published in October 2006. I enjoyed his The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War & Peace, 1989-1992, all 687 pages of it, published in 1995 by Putnam's.


James Patterson
Diplomat
JEPDiplomat@gmail.com