President Chen prevailed in the ever-accommodating Taiwanese High Court, but he still has an appointment with the court of history. One hopes that, in a few years, the Taiwanese people will be able to confront the March 19 shooting incident with dispassion and objectivity, and come to see it as what it really was. That day will arrive, as Émile Zola declared with eloquence and force in J'accuse:
``Ce n'est pas, d'ailleurs, que je désespère le moins du monde du triomphe. Je le répète avec une certitude plus véhémente: La vérité est en marche et rien ne l'arrêtera. ... quand on enferme la vérité sous terre, elle s'y amasse, elle y prend une force telle d'explosion, que, le jour où elle éclate, elle fait tout sauter avec elle.'' (As for myself, I have not despaired in the least, of the triumph of right. I repeat with the most vehement conviction: The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it. ... when truth is buried underground, it grows and it builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it.)
| Ching-Li Chai |
| Department of Mathematics |
| University of Pennsylvania |
| Philadelphia, PA 19003 |
| U. S. A. |
| http://www.math.upenn.edu/~chai |