http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/1831579 Yao bears witness to democracy in action Houston Chronicle SAN FRANCISCO -- Outside Yao Ming's hotel room, the streets were crowded with angry faces and bitter voices. Even with war on the television, he could push buttons on the remote control and make it move out of sight. But the battle outside his window was not an image from across the planet. This was real and a few feet away. It turned out living in America was not just about eating pizza and driving SUVs. Yao knew all along, but everyone else seemed to forget. So he answered the usual questions about his unusual life, talked about what he eats and how he spends his time. No, he did not visit Chinatown. There was no time. Yes, he misses home. How could he not? But Thursday and Friday in San Francisco, just outside the Rockets' typically plush hotel, protesters held rallies opposing the U.S. action in Iraq. They stopped traffic and made speeches. In the first day alone, 1,400 were arrested, many a few feet away from Rockets players who seemed shocked to see it all without the softening filter of a television set. Yao watched, too, and in many ways might have seen something more American than fast food and faster cars. "It shows America is a very democratic society," Yao said. "They're expressing another voice. Not everybody supports war. "I don't support war. I think war is always the last option. It is always best to avoid war. "I don't have great understanding of politics. But I heard that the U.S. didn't go through the United Nations." Yao's position -- even with the disclaimer that he is a basketball player and not a politician -- perhaps not coincidentally mirrors Beijing's. But even as China denounced the U.S. action, it denied the request of student groups wanting to voice the same position as their government. As Rockets players watched from their windows, close enough to hear every word, or stood outside, a few feet from the angry voices, a more important part of America was clear. "Going to school in Ann Arbor, you see a lot of protests," Maurice Taylor said. "They protest about everything at Michigan. But it was weird to see something like that. It was crazy." Said Steve Francis: "I've seen protests before in D.C. But I've never seen anything like that." Yao also had seen protests. He was 9 years old in Shanghai, though he does not remember the subject and did not take part. "This was the first time," he said, "I've seen anything like that." Yao remains loyally Chinese, a determined representative of his people and society. But no matter how he -- or anyone felt -- about what was said in the streets, having the right to say it and being there to see it might have been the most American part, the most important part, of Yao's whirlwind of experience so far from home.
