“Diana Garland, social work educator and bridge builder, dies” is sad news.
I got to know Dr. Garland when I was a lifeguard at the recreation center at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She would swim every morning. Our rule was that you could study when there was no one in the pool. So, on the mornings she was the only person swimming, she would jokingly say, “I’ll bet I’m the only professor who’s ever told you to stop studying!”
And although I never had a class with her, she was always very kind, joy-filled and interested in how my classes were going.
In my opinion, Southern Seminary lost something vital when they eliminated the Carver School of Church Social Work, but their loss was absolutely Baylor’s gain.
Praying for Dr. Garland’s family.
James Jackson
Prattville, Ala.
Texans call for an end to persecution in China
Upon Chinese Communist Party head Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, it is my hope Americans will focus on China’s terrible human rights record as well as bringing the former leader Jiang Zemin to justice for launching the massive 16-year persecution campaign against Falun Gong.
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One may ask, “Why does China’s human rights issue concern me here in Texas?”
Currently in the U.S. Congress there is a resolution, H.Res. 343, that expresses “concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from nonconsenting prisoners of conscience in the People’s the Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners.”
I am extremely thankful we have kind-hearted Texas congressmen who co-sponsored H.Res. 343: Rep. Ted Poe, Rep. Michael Conaway, Rep. Kenny Marchant, Rep. Pete Sessions, Rep. Bill Flores and Rep. Michael McCaul.
Texas Penal Code Title 10, Sec. 48.02 prohibits the purchase and sale of human organs. As Texas patients continue to travel to China for organ transplants and the medical community continues cooperation and training with Chinese doctors, it is critical that the crime of forced organ harvesting be exposed and denounced widely.
Vivian Nguyen
Roanoke
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