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STEM CELL BATTLES
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中國話, see masterdemo.org (note: click on this one!) Or Mail a Check or Money Order Payable to the Tiger Claw Foundation Or Donate via Credit Card, call toll free: 1-800-821-5090 During normal business hours Send all raffle donations to: Benefit SupportersOrganizing Committee: Albert Chang, Tony Chen, Gene Ching, Rose He, Li Shudong, Gigi Oh, Betty Yuan, Kris Wang. Ultimate Internationals: Ray and Debbie Delgado Supporting Masters: Emilio Alpanseque, James Chin, Dr. Effie Chow, Deng Zhen, Dino Salvatera, Dynamic Martial Arts (with Kenny Perez), Justin Eggert, Hong Dao Wushu Academy Demo Team (with Chen Daoyun), Tony Huang, King of Masks (with J.D. Zhang), Richard Lee's East-West Kung Fu Demo Team, Li Ao, Li’s Tai Chi & Kung Fu Academy Demo Team (with Li Shudong), Jack Lu, May Chen Tai Chi Fitness, Pure Shaolin Kung Fu (with Ye Xinglie), Shaolin Kungfu Chan (with Xu Dezheng and Chen Fei), Shaolin Kung Fu International (with Ben Zhang), Shaolin Temple U.S.A. (with Shi Yanran), S.F. Wushu Team (with Bryant Fong), Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy Demo Team, Tiger Claw Elite Champions Showcase, U.S.A. O-Mei Kung Fu Academy, Fremont (with Sun Wenyun, Chris Lewin, Li Zheng, Yuan Chunlei, Yue Tao and Xu Suzhen), U.S.A. O-Mei Kung Fu Academy Headquarters (with Chen Jian, Tony Chen, Ding Wei and Wen Peng), U.S.A. Wu Chi Kung Fu Academy (with He Tao), White Dragon Kung Fu Academy (with Zhong Luo), Wushu Tai Chi Center (with Liu Yu), Wushu West Demo Team (with Patti Li), Zhang Lingmei Wushu Academy (with Zhang Lingmei, Robert Dull and Steven Kam), Wang, Zhou Chuan, Daniel Weng, Larry Young, Eddie Yuan, Zhang Xinyi, Zhaong Yunji, 99 Power Qigong (with Tu Jin-Sheng). Contributors: Lily Lau Sponsors: Ben's ShaolinKung Fu, Chin's Martial Arts Academy, Dynamic Martial Arts, East West Academy of Healing Arts, Hong Dao Wushu Academy, Hung-Sing Goon, Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine, KungFuDirect, Li's Wushu Academy, KCNS 38 (Chinese TV), Northern California Chinese Culture-Athletic Federation, Pan-China Alliance, USA , Richard Lee's East-West Kung Fu, San Francisco Wushu Team, Shaolin Kungfu Zen, Sue & Kathy Line Dance, Sunflower Learning Center, Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy, Tiger Claw, USA Kung Fu Studio, USA O-Mei Kung Fu Academy, USA Wu Chi Kung Fu Academy, White Dragon Kung Fu Academy,Wushu Tai Chi Center, Wushu West, www.masteringwushu.com, Zhang Lingmei Wushu Academy, 111, 99 Power Qigong Martial Arts Benefit for Quake Victims BlogVisit the KungFuMagazine.com online discussion forum thread for the latest updates: Martial Arts Benefit for Quake Victims Blog
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Remember that old song, “There, but for fortune, go you, or I”?
Wednesday was a wonderful day for the Reed family—and a terrible one for five million men, women, and children— in Szechuan, China.
Our family—Gloria, her brother Marty, our daughter Desiree, her husband Josh, their son Jackson, Terri Reed, Roman Junior, Jason Troy Reed, myself, and Jason’s godfather Stu Gordon—all sat together, waiting for the graduation ceremonies at Cal Berkeley to begin.
The Greek Amphitheater is a bowl carved out of the earth, and until the sun comes across, the outdoor theater is dark and cold; I shivered in my thin shirt.
But in Szechuan, China, five million people just like us, except for the accident of birth location—also shivered in the cold-- homeless from the earthquake catastrophe.
Gloria and I had driven into the downtown parking lot at 7:00, two hours early for the ceremony. The drive over was only mildly congested: easy traveling.
In China, collapsed road conditions had prevented excavation machinery from reaching broken buildings, and untold thousands waited, buried in the rubble.
Gloria and I had a strenuous walk, half a mile due east from the parking lot, turned north, walked another half mile—I was afraid we would have to stand outside for two hours before it started-- but kindly folk let us in and allowed us to sit down.
How much help did President George Bush authorize to send to China’s emergency? Five hundred thousand dollars, half a million: that’s all. We flooded hundred of billions into Iraq, with questionable reasons and results. But to China? Almost nothing. Maybe the President will give more later. I hope so. To give so little is embarrassing.
In Roman’s graduating class, UC Berkeley, 2008, approximately fifty thousand people.
Approximately fifty thousand people died in the Szechuan earthquake.
That song, “there but for fortune, go you, or I”—kept playing in my mind.
So much is luck. I did nothing virtuous to be born here in a rich country. But here I am, in comparative luxury, while in Szechuan, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives scrabbled with their fingers at the rubble, still trying to reach their loved ones. Rescuers told of finding people with their legs trapped under fallen rock, and how the pinned limbs must be amputated before they can be brought up to the air.
Housing prices in the Bay Area are terrible—but in Szechuan, twenty times the population of my home town of Fremont are suddenly homeless because of the quake.
As we waited, Grandson Jackson had to use the restroom, and I hurried him up the hill.
In Szechuan, a school is being used to house the children whose parents cannot be found.
A woman in front of me apparently had cerebral palsy. Her wheelchair had a computer and a screen, so she could communicate with the world. She was graduating today, which was wonderful, but what a tough life she had, through no fault of her own-- and yet some people try to block the research which might bring cure.
What is the answer? Some of the people in Szechuan survived, and were carried alive out of the mountain of despair—because even when they had no excavating equipment at all, still the Chinese people labored night and day, and would not give up—and lives were saved.
At least one of Roman’s classrooms was built so long before Americans Disabilities Act that it did not have to be compliant with wheelchair accessibility—so Roman had to listen to the class from outside in the hallway, because the doorways were too narrow—but George Bush’s father passed the ADA. In colleges built tomorrow, things will be better.
A burst of music! The sweet familiar graduation theme began to play—and a long line of cap-and-gowned students appeared at the top of the hill in the Greek amphitheater.
Suddenly there he was, our glorious son, going over the top of the hill-- and down, too steep a terrain, too rough, I worried that his chair might overturn. But it did not.
Our son’s name was shouted out by the loudspeaker: “Roman Jason Patrick Reed”: the words were almost visible, seeming to hang in the air in letters of gold:
At last, our magnificent son drove his powerchair across the stage, and received the scroll. He had completed the requirements of the college and earned the Bachelor of Arts degree. He had overcome so many obstacles to achieve that goal.
Gloria was trembling; tears burst down her cheeks, in joy so intense I feared for her heart. This was a goal she had set: to see her children graduate—and now they had. Roman’s determination and achievement had earned him his diploma: now he must face the unknown world. Education is largely behind him, action and deeds are just ahead. If you see him out there, say hello, I know he will be glad to greet you.
But how many parents’ lives were shattered in Szechuan; how many dreams for their children, gone in an instant? We will never meet the millions who are displaced in China.
But if we can, we should do something, even something very small, to try and help.
Like tomorrow evening, there will be a martial arts performance, to benefit the survivors of the quake in Sezechuan.
May Chen, beloved Tai Chi teacher of Lake Elizabeth, Fremont, is among the martial artists of the Bay Area, all performing free. Admission is $20, and every nickel goes to the earthquake survivors. If you live in the Bay Area, consider attending this marvelous extravaganza.
Several of Roman’s friends cannot attend his promotion party, but they are sending him a graduation present anyway. My father, Dr. Charles Reed, will be out of town, but he had a beautiful plaque made for Roman, which reads, in part:
“Heartiest congratulations to Roman Jason Patrick Reed on his graduation from the University of California on May of 2008. He graduated by surmounting great obstacles. May he continue to inspire us all! With love, Grandfather Charles H. Reed.”
I will be unable to attend the Szechuan fundraiser—but I can at least click on the button which says “See Master Demo”, to get a hint of the power and majesty of the athletes donating their time. It connects also to a donation button, which I tried, and it works.
The fundraising effort will continue: a dollar in China, and a help from you is a gift to the world.
Thank you,
Don C. Reed, who has the good fortune to be the father of Roman.
Martial Arts Benefit for Quake Victims
7:30 PM Saturday, May 24th, 2008 Santa Clara Convention Center This is in cooperation with the Ultimate Internationals, a Tiger Claw Elite Championship Qualifier, which is being held prior to the benefit.
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