Published Apr. 25 , 2008:

I have nothing against the idea of Chinese students coming into our area. I tried to convey this in this cartoon by having one character say that "I'm sure they are good kids." On a personal note, one of the finest students I taught, a little bit before I retired, was a teenage girl from China. In fact she showed me how to write the word "music" in Chinese. I incorporated the letter "K" into it. That's the initial of my first wife, Kate, who had recently died from breast cancer. This became the tattoo that is on my upper right arm.

The problem I have with the China is similar to the one I have with the U.S.A.: While the individual citizens may be fine, the governments are a little bullish. China is obviously non-democratic, but then again, the form of democracy that the U.S. presents (and Canada, too, alas) is not always the purest form that was visualized by the founding fathers. It seems to me that "power" and capitalism often gets in the way of what's best for all the citizens of both their own country and the world. ... So, if your Chinese, American, or Canadian, please do not be personally offended... this is not about you as an individual, and it's not even about most of "your people", it's about your country and its way of doing things... often times beyond your control.