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My Experience of Learning       How to Drive My Motorized Wheelchair                                      By Wen Fei Liang                         Contents

Unfortunately, I had a disease called Polio when I was one year old. That caused many muscles and nerves in both legs to be paralyzed. As a result, I have always walked with difficulty. If I walked ten minutes, I would get a sweaty shirt. I fell down frequently, and I hurt my knee more times than I can remember.

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I recall that when I was a little girl, when the New Year came traditional Chinese parents needed to give their children new clothes. My mother made me fitted, beautiful colored trousers. She let me wear them on the New Year. When I was trying them on O walked, then I fell down on my knee. I was very sad. I found my trousers were torn. Thereafter, all of my trousers had many mending.

I recall that I had a bad experience in my life. One day in the morning, I went to work. While I was walking on the road I tripped on a small battery. Then I lost my balance. I fell immediately. I sprained my middle finger on my left hand, because my body’s center of gravity pressed my poor finger. It was painful, my face was pale and I almost passed out. According to the X-ray report, my finger muscles were torn a little. So I had a swollen finger for three months. I had to do physical therapy. In order to prevent the same event’s happening to me, my doctor suggested that I use a motorized wheelchair if I needed to go somewhere that would mean walking for more than ten minutes.

I remember that I tried to use the motorized wheelchair the first day I got it. I was excited, because I could move faster with my wheelchair. However, I was afraid of hitting someone, so I drove my power wheelchair insecurely. And I avoided driving it when I was going out alone. If I wanted to go out, I had to find someone to go with me who could find which places had a ramp and which did not.

This went on until one day I saw a man whose condition was worse than mine, because his hand had problems functioning, but he could control his wheelchair well. I thought, If he can do it, why can’t I? I shouldn’t be a chicken. I need to have confidence to do everything.” So I decided to practice more and more, to perfect my skill. A few weeks later I used my motorized wheelchair to take a bus. I kept in my mind which places have a ramp or not. I could go shopping by myself, without someone’s help.

In this instance, I learned how to drive my power wheelchair. But I realized something even more important: I realized that I am able to learn something and do anything!

An Innocent Man Jailed For Twenty-eight Years By Wen Fei Liang

I read The Sino American Times recently. I read about a man, Xie Hong Wu, who had been in the custody of public Security for twenty- eight years.

On October 30, 2002 he was released from the detention room, because he is an innocent man. Mr. Xie was born in a landlord family. In 1974 the local people’s militia arrested him because they said he had kept a reactionary handbill in secret, which was against the Chinese government .So he was sent to public security, So they could handle him.

Many years later, the Chinese judicial department, law executor, and public security didn’t know what kind of crime Mr. Xie had committed. They also didn’t find a criminal file on him. Since he’d been kept in jail for many years, it was as if he’d vanished from the world. His relatives thought he had passed away.

In 1996 the prosecution department needed to investigate punishment and prosecution policies. So they found out Mr. Xie had been imprisoned unjustly. After six years of investigating the case, finally Public Security announced he was innocent, and set him free.

Poor Mr. Xie had been detained in a room alone, Passing 10,348 days in there. No one spoke to him during that time. He was completely disconnected from community and humanity. When he went into jail, he was middle-aged: When he got his freedom he had become humpbacked and his hair had turned entirely gray. Worst of all, He couldn’t speak a word and didn’t know who he was. He had Alzheimer’s

He got a 569,059-reimbursement indemnity from a lawsuit, and was sent to a hospital to help him recover his speaking function. After three years of treatment, He could say his name and remembered the hard times that had passed. He said that he’d stood in the room without a window and only heard footsteps through the side door, but he always waited for someone to come. He said he was anxious, because nobody realized he existed.

As you can see, the Chinese government was mistaken in Mr.Xie’s case. That was unfair to him. That is Chinese history, and a tragedy in Mr. Xie’s life. He was an unlucky

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