ORGANIZATION FOR JUSTICE & EQUALITY (OJE)
MISSION STATEMENT
Organization
for Justice and Equality is committed to the upholding of justice and
the promotion of equality in the United States of America especially
California, with special emphasis on discrimination problems,
governmental policies and operations, ethical
issues, and consumer grievances.
We
are people of the United States from all walks of life, striving to
contribute more to society, build a better country, and exercise the
rights of citizens.
We
work
with
various
organizations
and
leaders
on
a
case-by-case
basis.
We
are
not
affiliated
with
any
political
party.
Current Issues:
OJE
works
on
different
projects
and
issues
all
the
time
for
the
betterment
of
our
society.
Below
is an example
of
the
current
issues
we
are
working
on:
PLEASE SIGN TO STOP THE BRAINWASHING OF
CHILDREN AND PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY!
Please support the CLASS initiative – Children Learning Accurate Social
Science. This initiative aims to stop politicians from rewriting
textbooks so as to protect our children and our future
generations.
LA Times basically supported our position in an editorial last year
maintaining that politicians should not try to rewrite textbooks
(please see attached). According to the SF Chronicle survey on
this issue last year, 64% of the respondents supported our
position. Let us stop politicians from brainwashing our children
and protect our democracy!
CLASS repeals SB48 which is unprecedented in the country requiring all
public schools to include positive discussions of the sexual
orientations of transgender, bisexual, and homosexual Americans in all
social science courses from K-12. Importantly, there cannot be
any adverse reflection of these lifestyles even though there are facts
to support. When California is in a budget crisis and when
California students are ranked at the bottom quartile in core subjects,
we cannot afford to have this unwanted
burden.
The CLASS initiative ensures that no historical figure can be excluded
from inclusion in social science instruction or textbooks due to being
in a protected class such as LGBT. But it also specifies that
such inclusion should be based on contribution to society, but not
simply on membership in a protected class.
Suffice it to say, we do need the CLASS Act which removes a mandate
that California legislators imposed on every school district. Now
we need about 505,000 valid signatures before July 11 to quality this
initiative on the ballot. Based on the above-mentioned survey, we
are confident that once we quality, we would prevail in the
election.
We urge everyone to sign this petition especially at
www.classact2012.com and then vote for it later. Let us work
together to stop politicians from brainwashing future generations and
protect our democracy!
Gays in
textbooks-LA Times 04082011
Examples of our work:
Organization of Justice & Equality (OJE) continuously works on
different issues and projects for the betterment of our society.
The followings are some examples:
1. Settled with TVB on sex
discrimintion cases
Our President, Frank Lee, and our
V.P., Daniel Law, have filed complaints to Equal Opportunity Commission
(EOC) in Hong Kong against Television Broadcasting Limited (TVB)
pertaining to their rejection of our requests to be admitted as live
audience in the 2010 Mr. Hong Kong Show based on sex, possibly
violating Section 28 of the Sex Discrimination Ordinances of Hong Kong
(Chapter 480).
These cases are now settled. Please refer to the attached press
release by TVB, distributed in Hong Kong.
Organization for Justice and Equality (OJE 平等公義協會) appreciates the
cooperation/support from various groups and individuals in the United
States of America, Hong Kong, and Canada.
TVB Press
Release July 2011
2. Led the San Francisco Bay Area
No on Prop. 19 campaign and successfully defeated Prop. 19-legalization
of marijuana for entertainment purposes in California.
In the November 2010 election, we
led the San Francisco Bay Area No on Prop. 19 campaign and successfully
defeated Prop. 19, thus stopping the legalization of marijuana for
entertainment purposes in California. We won since truth is on
our side.
If Prop. 19 were passed, cities and counties would have to create laws
individually to regulate the sales, consumption, transportation, and
cultivation of marijuana, leading to complete chaos and endless
lawsuits. It would bring disastrous consequences to Californians
in law making and enforcement, business, education, growth of
youngsters, living environment, and property value while certainly did
not guarantee any increase in net income to the government. The
expenses on law making and enforcement and associated social services
due to marijuana usage might be more than the tax revenue
suggested.
Prop. 19 also violated the Federal Law and could cause California
businesses and schools to lose Federal contracts and
funding.
None of us wants our children to use drug and be in a perilous
situation. The growth and health of our future generations cannot
be compromised regardless! Attached is our coalition
statement.
PressRelease-NoonProp19Oct1210
3. Contributed
to
the
passage
of
Proposition
13
The passage of Prop 13 will provide that
construction to seismically retrofit existing buildings will not
trigger
reassessment of property value, regardless of the type of building.
By eliminating the unequal treatment of different
types of properties which undergo seismic safety improvements, this
proposition
promotes equity and fairness among taxpayers and encourages property
owners to
upgrade or improve for earthquake safety.
This proposition also eliminates a substantial
workload for the State Board of Equalization and County Assessors since
all
seismic retrofits are treated the same.
We led our Bay Area coalition to support Proposition 13 in the June
2010 Election. The result was over 85% of voters voted yes to
this proposition.
4. Led a
major San Francisco Bay Area coalition against bridge toll increase
Our coalition has been protecting ordinary citizens in the Bay Area
through the years. Originally, citizens were
told that there
would be no bridge toll once the Bay Bridge construction cost was
covered. In 1989, the bridge toll was $1,
now it is $5 or more,
the increase is much faster than inflation.
It is really inopportune to have an increase in bridge toll in the Bay
Area when we are in a recession with national unemployment rate at
about 10%. This will cause inflationary pressure and affect
everybody seriously. If the revenue from the current toll
increase is really for retrofit, there should be a
sunset clause with
the current increase.
Charging for carpool is pernicious and counter-productive, against our
efforts in advocating shared rides to solve the
problems of traffic
congestion and environmental pollution. Moreover, charging
commuters more during peak hours is really penalizing the assiduous
working class unfairly.
Our efforts have contributed to the lowering of carpool charge to $2.5
and the delaying of charges to truckers. We will continue to
monitor their financial conditions and retrofit progress to ensure
that
they will stop the current increase after the retrofit projects are
paid off.
Attached is our latest press release on this issue.
Coalition-bridgetollincreaseDec202009
increase in California
OJE has been coordinating a Bay Area coalition against unreasonable and
continuous tax increases in
California.In May of 2009, we
urged California voters to vote no on Proposition 1A and yes on
1F.
If passed, 1A would have led to more unreasonable tax
increases in California hurting our
economic
recovery
while 1F would lead to the restriction of pay increases of top
California officials in economically
bad times. Our side had
an almost landslide victory in both of these measures, with well over
60% voters
voted no on 1A
and over 70% of them voted yes on
1F.
Our
coalition, as most voters do, believes that the problem of California
is the outrageous and
irresponsible
spending, increasing the state
general budget from 70 billion to over 100 billion in just 5 years.
The
legislators should scrutinize the newly added spending rather than
taking away funds from the groups
and people with weaker political
power, certainly not to raise tax since Californians already have
the
heaviest tax burden in the whole country. Raising
tax
will
lead
to
less
consumption
and
investment,
creating a vicious
cycle, hurting the economic recovery, and leading California to the
wrong direction.
We
encourage Californians to stay alert on this issue and urge the
Governor and lawmakers to understand the
real problem and take us to
the right direction. Attached is our press
release.
Bay
Area
Taxpayers'
Coalition
May
2009
Statement
6.
Organized a promotional campaign for
Proposition 4
of November 08
Election -
requiring girls
under 18 to notify a parent before doing abortion
OJE led a coalition to promote Proposition 4 of November
08 Election in the Bay Area. Proposition
4, if
passed, would have led to the requirement for underage
girls to
at least notify a parent or an adult family
member 48 hours before
doing abortion. This proposition is common sense,
mainstream, and non-partisan.
Thus, it is already the law in 35 other states in
the country.
It
is illogical that while parent's approval is needed for minors for
everything including joining a school
picnic and taking an Aspirin,
minor girls can do abortion without even notifying a parent or an adult
family
member, to the advantage of sex predators. Girls
under
18
do
need
better
protection
than
this
imperatively. Studies also show that states
with such notification law have less teenage pregnancies and
less sexually transmitted diseases.
A large number of media friends joined our press
conference and our campaign in the Bay Area was
successful. However,
Proposition 4 lost by a small margin since the other side had
significantly much
more promotional funds for the whole state. Our
side
encourages
Californians
to
really
understand
the
issue and help to
pass such a logical and indispensable proposition eventually.
Attached
is
the
coalition
statement.
PressRelease-YesonProp4a
7. Unprecedented
international
coalition
against
TVB
We
have initiated and are leading an unprecedented international
coalition including organizations in the
United States, Canada,
and Hong Kong against Television Broadcasts Limited-Hong
Kong (TVB).
This is due to their repeated low-class and
lascivious Mr. Hong Kong Contest programs broadcast in
Chinese
communities everywhere. Please see the attached joint statements
and file complaints to
relevant authorities in your respective
areas.
A
major part of the show was similar to a stripper show which normally
only allows audience above
18 years of age, but TVB broadcast this for
general audience at virtually prime time, significantly
lowered the
moral standard of regular TV broadcasts for general audience
everywhere. This show
tarnished the images of both Chinese
men and women seriously and affected our youngsters
deleteriously.
Attached is an open letter to TVB-HK from Hong Kong
Sex Culture Society.
HKSCopenletter
The
following joint statements have been widely covered by journalists in
U.S., Hong Kong, and Canada,
and have the details of the problems.
Joint Statement
August 25, 2008
ORGANIZATION FOR JUSTICE &
EQUALITY ( U.S.A. )
平等公義協會
SAN FRANCISCO CHINESE
CHRISTIANS UNION ( U.S.A. )
三藩市華人基督教聯會
CHINESE CHRISTIANS HERALD CRUSADES -
L.A. ( U.S.A. )
角聲---羅省
PATIENTS ADVOCATE ( U.S.A. )
病人權益協會
HONG KONG SEX CULTURE SOCIETY ( Hong
Kong )
香港性文化學會
SOCIETY FOR TRUTH AND LIGHT ( Hong
Kong )
明光社
CHRISTIANS SOCIAL CONCERN FELLOWSHIP
( Canada )
基督徒社會關懷組
CONCERNED PARENTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (
Canada )
B.C.省家長聯盟
JUBILEE CENTER FOR SOCIAL ACTION (
Canada )
銀禧社會行動中心
08
Coalition Statement against TVB-HK
09 Coalition Statement against TVB-HK
8. Contributed to the defeat of Proposition 93
(term limit of legislators) in February of 2008
We
led a coalition of taxpayers' groups and citizens' organizations in the
Bay Area to oppose to
Proposition 93 which, if passed, would have
increased the term limit for most current legislators in
California and
extended the total term of some to 20 years. We believe that from the
point of view of
ordinary citizens, too long a term limit is not good
at all.
We also believe that California legislators should
stop
pushing Californians to approve bond measures
which considerably led to
the state deficit crisis. We have correctly predicted and warned
against
this before.
Please see the attached press release of February
2008.
coalitionnoProp93
9. Helped to Block the problematic
Federal Immigration Reform in June 2007
We
have worked with various organizations and legislators to block the
Federal Senate bill on
Immigration Reform. This bill, if passed, would
have led to the elimination of most existing family
reunion immigration
categories retroactively. The bill was successfully blocked in June of
2007.
Organization for Justice & Equality believes
that this
Senate proposal is inhumane, unjust, barbaric,
and unwise. It is
inhumane since if passed, this bill would have created many broken
families. Many
legal residents especially Asians would
permanently not be able to reunite with their family members.
It
is barbaric because all the immigration applications after May 1, 2005
would be canceled. This would
greatly hurt the reputation of our
country.
Talented people would not want to immigrate to the
U.S.
if they could never reunite with their family
members. We would be
losing a big advantage in the aspect of attracting talents. The
percentage of
Asian population in this country would be smaller if
this
bill was passed, affecting Asian Americans both
politically and
economically. Asian Americans would be even more vulnerable and
discrimination might
aggravate. Thus, every Asian American should
oppose to this proposal.
Attached is a joint statement by our coalition.
Jointstatementfamilyreunion
10. Formed a national
coalition in 24 hours to take care of the "Dog House" case
unprecedentedly
There
was
a
6-minute
radio
program
by
WFNY
in
New
York,
a
CBS
radio
station,
with
serious
sexual
harassment and racial discrimination
content.
The DJs called a Chinese restaurant, using
discriminatory language to
harass the waitresses, and then even sexually harassing them.
This was in
"Dog House" program and was aired twice in April of
2007. This has caused an outrage all over the
country.
After
a nationwide campaign by civil rights groups from across the country,
CBS Radio disclosed on
5/11/07 that the two hosts of the program and
their producer would no longer be working for CBS and its
affiliates.
The show was also canceled. It was unprecedented in the United States
that a major
broadcasting corporation reacted to the demands of
Chinese
civil rights groups in such a manner.
This case should have
alerted the media that programs with such racist and sexist content
will not be
tolerated and that racial discrimination and sexual
harassment must be stopped!
We applaud the good efforts of our
east coast partners especially Organization of Chinese Americans.
We took the lead in the west coast especially the
national petition of
which more than 10,000 signatures
were generated in 4 days. We
actually formed a national coalition for this case in 24 hours.
This
case illustrates the importance of determination and unity in the
community.
We sincerely thank every member, supporter, and
organization that has contributed to this nationwide
campaign.
11.
Contributed to block gas tax increase
Organization
for
Justice
&
Equality
led
a
coalition
of
groups
including
taxpayers'
groups
and
justice
organizations in the Bay Area and worked
together with several dozen similar groups in California,
successfully
blocking SB757, gas tax increase, two years in a row.
Gas tax
increase was pernicious to Californians, especially at a time when gas
price was at a
historic high. If it was passed, both
businesses
and families would be affected seriously.
ojesb757pressrelease3
12.
Obtained a promise from Fox to improve policies
regarding discriminatory language
OJE
requested
Federal
Communications
Commission
(FCC)
to
regard
the
slur
"Chinaman"
as
profanity.
We successfully obtained a promise from
Fox Entertainment Group, Inc. in October 2004 to improve
their policies
regarding objectionable or discriminatory terms used in programs.
Please see our press release dated October 25,
2004
for details.
ojefoxsports
13. Contributed to the defeat of
Proposition 56, shutting the floodgate to massive and continuous tax
-
increases
Together
with
dozens
of
other
organizations,
we
were
actively
helping
Californians
to
understand
Proposition 56 particularly its defects
through various channels. We helped to defeat Proposition 56
by a
large margin in March 2004.
We believe that the real purpose of
Proposition 56 is to make it easier for legislators to increase
various
types of taxes by lowering the voters' approval requirement to raise
tax from 66.7% to 55%.
If passed, the floodgate to massive and
continuous increases in taxes would be opened and be disastrous!
Californians
are already paying $130 billion in state and local taxes every
year! In the last legislative
session before March 04 alone,
state legislators proposed more than 100 tax and fee increases totaling
about $65 billion. Americans on the average
spend even more on
taxes than food, lodging, and clothing
combined. Not until May 3
of each year, moreover, can we put our wages in our own bank accounts
because our earnings before that usually have
to be
used for tax
purposes. Are we still not paying
enough in tax?!
To raise
tax when the economy is just starting to recover is really
pernicious. Proposition 56 would
make our state legislators even
less accountable since they can write more blank checks due to the
increases in taxes. Regardless of what
other
good points this
proposition might have, we urged
everybody to vote no on Proposition 56
because the passage of which would have caused big increases
in taxes.
14. Encouraged
voters to vote No on Regional Measure 2 (RM2) - March 2, 2004 Ballot
(San Francisco
Bay Area)
Together
with many other organizations, we helped to explain the various
problems of Regional
Measure 2, emphasizing that it would not solve our
traffic problems while increasing our financial
burden and derailing
our progress in this aspect. Please see the following press release for
details.
ojeregmeaII
However,
due
to
the
lack
of
budget
and
other
obligations,
we
could
not
compete
with
the
other
side
with huge budget and support of politicians.
But the
margin
of loss was small and a six-point swing would
have tied it up. We will,
together with other organizations, continue to monitor traffic issues
especially the
usage of funds collected due to Regional Measure 2.
15. Attempted
to
restore
the
basic
civil
rights
of
Californians
We
have contributed in the efforts to push through AB1715 aiming to
restore the basic civil rights of
Californians, mainly the rights to
file lawsuit or report to relevant authorities when being discriminated
against at the workplace. A Supreme
Court case in recent year
started to deprive Californians of these
rights.
In October of
2003, we took the lead to urge the former Governor, Davis, to sign into
law AB1715
which was unprecedented in the country.
We were joined
by the Fair Employment and
Housing Commission of California and major
civil rights groups in the country including AARP, ACLU,
CAA, ERA, and
NOW. Please see the following press release.
ojeab1715
To
the dismay of most Californians, Governor Davis vetoed AB1715 the
second time. But our efforts in
restoring the basic civil rights
of Californians in this aspect will not end.
16. Helped
to successfully convince INS to abandon the proposed shortening of
foreign visitors' stay -
in
the
United
States
to
just
one
month
We
worked hard in 2002 to successfully convince the Immigration &
Naturalization Services (INS)
to abandon their proposal in connection
with limiting foreign visitors' stay in the United States to just
one
month instead of six months. This proposal, if implemented, would
be pernicious to family reunion,
the tourism industry, and business.
This
cruel and unreasonable proposal, affecting first-generation immigrants
the most since they
normally still have relatives and connections
in
foreign countries, can be regarded as discriminatory.
Family reunion
would definitely be affected. Terrorists may not need visa to enter and
stay in our country.
This would bring our country backward and
tarnish our image. Business especially the tourism industry
would
be adversely impacted.
We have actively urged citizens and
legislators to petition to INS. Finally, INS abandoned this
proposed policy. They should be credited
for respecting and
listening to ordinary citizens. This is
democracy at work.
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