On Saturday, October 29, 1864, Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth and US President Abraham Lincoln met. Toward the end of their meeting, Truth asked Lincoln to sign her Book of Life, which was a combination scrapbook and autograph book. Truth used her Book of Life to enclose personal letters and newspaper clippings and to collect signatures of people she admired and respected.
Truth and Lincoln were not lovers; they were friends. Everyone didn't make it into her Book of Life. Truth also met with President Andrew Johnson, but she did not ask him to sign her Book of Life.
God has the names of creyentes (believers) written in His Book of Life. Creyentes can make their own books of life like Sojourner Truth's Book of Life. Married creyentes can even turn their books of life into Chinese pillow books. Chinese pillow books are small, sex-instruction manuals, each on a specific topic with illustrations. You can include erotic poems written by you or someone else, pressed flowers, cards, mementos, clippings from magazines and/or books with your notes, prose of your own on special paper and whatever you and your spouse enjoy. Books can be titled Touch Me Like This, Play Time, Hot Dates, Beautiful Butts, Fellatio, Cunnilingus, Intercourse Positions, S & M Alternatives or something in a code known only to each other. What are the titles of your Chinese pillow books?
Sex is an integral part of a marriage relationship. Sex is good. Sex is created by God. Sometimes people abuse or fail to appreciate God's creative work. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Amplified Bible says, "But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast."
Un dicho (a proverb) says, "Pueblo dividido, pueblo vencido." ("A people divided, a people conquered.") Chinese pillow books and books of life can build relationships by helping people to appreciate and to understand each other and to seek unity. We all do not think alike and may be surprised to learn certain things about our spouses and friends.
Some people are afraid of and try to suppress open communication. Iranian authorities put Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two children because Pastor Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for threatening Iran's national security. The US State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union have all called for Pastor Saeed Abedini's release, and over 574,000 people worldwide from over 180 countries have signed a petition lending him support. A campaign to write letters to him for his May 7th birthday and to sign the petition is being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org.
Cherish the God-given ability to communicate. Please call Governor Mary Fallin at (405-521-2342) to ask her to sign into law HB 1403 The Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act of Oklahoma which protects the elderly, seriously ill and disabled by preventing medical providers from denying individuals life-saving treatment based on their quality of life.
"I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions," says a character in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The most important relationship to have is a relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost (1 X 1 X 1 = 1). Matthew 22:36-40 English Standard Version Bible says, "“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”"
China is not treating neighbors well. "I escaped so I could tell the world about the situation in China," Chen Guangcheng said in an April 24, 2013, article by Dai Ying for Deutsch Welle.
Guangcheng is from China. He is the husband of Yuan Weijing and the father of a girl and a boy. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.
Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.
Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."
Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012. He Peirong is a key member of a group of activists who organize support for Guangcheng in China. He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.
On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape. Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin.
"He (Chen Kegui) must be heavily injured, I'm worried about his physical state," Liu Fang said to Reuters reporter Sui-Lee Wee for her May 24, 2012, article "Brother of blind China activist flees village." Liu Fang also said about her husband and Guangcheng's nephew, "Inside, he might be subject to beatings."
Torture and other reprisals by Chinese authorities are happening to family and friends of Guangcheng since his escape from China to the US one year ago.
On April 24, 2013, Chen Kegui's mother, Ren Zongju, and Chen Kegui's uncle, Chen Guangjun, were told by Chinese authorities to answer questions about whether they “harbored a criminal” by helping Chen Kegui before his capture. Chen Guangjun is a bother of Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangfu, another brother of Chen Guangcheng, told Chris Buckley of The New York Times for his April 24, 2013, article, "Chinese Officials Order Questioning of Exiled Activist’s Relatives, “I think that this is really about Guangcheng;” “I’ve heard that he spoke at the U.S. Congress and leveled accusations against officials. In my view, that infuriated them.”
Creyentes are called to infuriate the enemy of good relationships. We are all sexual beings, but all are not using sexuality in the service of God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost. 1 John 3:7-8 the Message Bible says, "So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways."
Write a letter about forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China's one-child policy and human rights abuses of Chen Guangcheng's family and friends to:
Secretary of State John Kerry
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Showing posts with label Sojourner Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sojourner Truth. Show all posts
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Hasty and Happy Don't Often Go Together
An African proverb from Kenya and Ethiopia says, "Hasty marriages bring hasty divorces."
Sometimes we can fall in love and marry a fantasy. How many people thoroughly communicate their beliefs about spirituality, sex, money and other areas of life and seek to learn these from their potential spouse and his/her family before marriage?
Many people in America have participated in sex outside of marriage. Not everyone has the same beliefs about it. Some spouses are able to receive forgiveness from God for participating in sex outside of marriage, but they don't extend that forgiveness to their spouse and distrust their spouse for some or all of their marriage. Some spouses also misinterpret uninhibited sex as a sign of sexual infidelity. Many other marital, sexual misinterpretations and mistreatment goes on.
What precisely are your expectations of marriage?
Jesus Christ says in Matthew 7:12 Complete Jewish Bible, "“Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets."
Don't you want someone to understand and appreciate the real you? Wouldn't spouses, family and friends want likewise? Communication and compassion are critical.
While we can share a relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost with whosoever, whosoever cannot be in our circle of intimacy.
Proverbs 18:22 Amplified Bible says, "He who finds a [true] wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord." A true wife wants a true husband. A good marriage is the fellowship of two spiritually mature Christians who are continuously cooperating with God to change into His likeness.
Many people receive Christ, but refuse to grow in their relationship with Christ, themselves and other people. The Bible gives us the blueprint for living after having received a relationship with God the Father, God the Son and Messiah Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit. Joshua 1:8 Amplified Bible says, "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success." Some people want to succeed in their relationships and other areas of life, but they are not willing to do what it takes to succeed. Love includes discipline. Brian Tracy writes in his book No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline 21 Ways to Achieve Lasting Happiness and Success, "One of the most important requirements for success, once you have decided what it is that you want, is the quality of willingness. Successful people are willing to pay the price, whatever it is and for as long as it takes, until they achieve the results they desire. Everyone wants to be successful . . . . But most people are not willing to pay the price. Occasionally, they may be wiling to pay part of the price, but they are not willing to pay the whole price. They always hold back. They always have some excuse or rationalization for not disciplining themselves to do everything that they need to do to achieve their goals."
Many of the qualities we seek in a spouse are desirable for friends too. He Peirong is not married to Chen Guangcheng; they are friends and human rights activists. He Peirong was not one of Chen Guangcheng's first followers, but later she became a key member of a group of activists who organize support for Guangcheng in China.
Standing up for human rights in China is a threat to one's own life and the lives of one's family and friends because China is not a free and open society. Making these decisions should not be done lightly neither should the decision to marry someone be made lightly.
Chen Guangcheng is the husband of Yuan Weijing and the father of a girl and a boy. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.
Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night.
Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."
Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012. He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.
On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
"Abre tu boca por el mudo en el juicio de todos los desvalidos," dice Proverbios 31:8 Biblia Bilingue Version Reina-Valera 1960. Proverbs 31:8 Bilingual Bible New King James Version says, "Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die."
Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran when Iranian authorities put him under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for threatening Iran's national security. The US State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union have all called for Pastor Saeed Abedini's release, and over 572,000 people worldwide from over 180 countries have signed a petition lending him support. A campaign to write letters to him for his May 7th birthday and to sign the petition is being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org. In a February 18, 2013, letter to his wife, Pastor Abedini wrote about physical and psychological abuse inflicted on him to compel him to deny his faith in Jesus Christ. He also wrote of plans to persevere in his relationship with God and to share it with others: "There are empty containers who are thirsty for a taste of the Living Water and we can quench their thirst by giving them Jesus Christ."
Sometimes our relationships are difficult because we made wrong choices to enter certain relationships and/or wrong choices within the relationship. Other times our relationships are difficult because we are growing spiritually and are being attacked by the kingdom of darkness. No matter the reason for relationship difficulties, a beautiful hymn to sing that Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth sang is:
"In my trials -- Lord walk with me.
In my trials -- Lord walk with me.
When my heart is almost breaking
Lord walk with me . . . "
Sometimes we can fall in love and marry a fantasy. How many people thoroughly communicate their beliefs about spirituality, sex, money and other areas of life and seek to learn these from their potential spouse and his/her family before marriage?
Many people in America have participated in sex outside of marriage. Not everyone has the same beliefs about it. Some spouses are able to receive forgiveness from God for participating in sex outside of marriage, but they don't extend that forgiveness to their spouse and distrust their spouse for some or all of their marriage. Some spouses also misinterpret uninhibited sex as a sign of sexual infidelity. Many other marital, sexual misinterpretations and mistreatment goes on.
What precisely are your expectations of marriage?
Jesus Christ says in Matthew 7:12 Complete Jewish Bible, "“Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets."
Don't you want someone to understand and appreciate the real you? Wouldn't spouses, family and friends want likewise? Communication and compassion are critical.
While we can share a relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost with whosoever, whosoever cannot be in our circle of intimacy.
Proverbs 18:22 Amplified Bible says, "He who finds a [true] wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord." A true wife wants a true husband. A good marriage is the fellowship of two spiritually mature Christians who are continuously cooperating with God to change into His likeness.
Many people receive Christ, but refuse to grow in their relationship with Christ, themselves and other people. The Bible gives us the blueprint for living after having received a relationship with God the Father, God the Son and Messiah Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit. Joshua 1:8 Amplified Bible says, "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success." Some people want to succeed in their relationships and other areas of life, but they are not willing to do what it takes to succeed. Love includes discipline. Brian Tracy writes in his book No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline 21 Ways to Achieve Lasting Happiness and Success, "One of the most important requirements for success, once you have decided what it is that you want, is the quality of willingness. Successful people are willing to pay the price, whatever it is and for as long as it takes, until they achieve the results they desire. Everyone wants to be successful . . . . But most people are not willing to pay the price. Occasionally, they may be wiling to pay part of the price, but they are not willing to pay the whole price. They always hold back. They always have some excuse or rationalization for not disciplining themselves to do everything that they need to do to achieve their goals."
Many of the qualities we seek in a spouse are desirable for friends too. He Peirong is not married to Chen Guangcheng; they are friends and human rights activists. He Peirong was not one of Chen Guangcheng's first followers, but later she became a key member of a group of activists who organize support for Guangcheng in China.
Standing up for human rights in China is a threat to one's own life and the lives of one's family and friends because China is not a free and open society. Making these decisions should not be done lightly neither should the decision to marry someone be made lightly.
Chen Guangcheng is the husband of Yuan Weijing and the father of a girl and a boy. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.
Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night.
Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."
Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012. He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.
On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
"Abre tu boca por el mudo en el juicio de todos los desvalidos," dice Proverbios 31:8 Biblia Bilingue Version Reina-Valera 1960. Proverbs 31:8 Bilingual Bible New King James Version says, "Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die."
Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran when Iranian authorities put him under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for threatening Iran's national security. The US State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union have all called for Pastor Saeed Abedini's release, and over 572,000 people worldwide from over 180 countries have signed a petition lending him support. A campaign to write letters to him for his May 7th birthday and to sign the petition is being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org. In a February 18, 2013, letter to his wife, Pastor Abedini wrote about physical and psychological abuse inflicted on him to compel him to deny his faith in Jesus Christ. He also wrote of plans to persevere in his relationship with God and to share it with others: "There are empty containers who are thirsty for a taste of the Living Water and we can quench their thirst by giving them Jesus Christ."
Sometimes our relationships are difficult because we made wrong choices to enter certain relationships and/or wrong choices within the relationship. Other times our relationships are difficult because we are growing spiritually and are being attacked by the kingdom of darkness. No matter the reason for relationship difficulties, a beautiful hymn to sing that Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist Sojourner Truth sang is:
"In my trials -- Lord walk with me.
In my trials -- Lord walk with me.
When my heart is almost breaking
Lord walk with me . . . "
Labels:
Abortion,
Black History,
Chen Guangcheng,
Communication,
Discipline,
Diversity,
God,
He Peirong,
Involuntary Sterilization,
Love,
Marriage,
Relationships,
Saeed Abedini,
Sojourner Truth,
Women's History
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Send Salt to Your Enemy
By July 4, 1827, African-American slavery was illegal in the state of New York. Nevertheless, the Dumonts sold Peter, Sojourner Truth's son, to the Gedney family who sold Peter to another family that took Peter to Alabama.
Peter's sale was illegal. New York law prohibited blacks being sold or sent out of state to circumvent their being freed within the state. Sojourner Truth, who was named Isabella at the time, confronted Mrs. Dumont. "Mrs. Dumont replied, "A fine fuss to make about a little nigger!...A pity 'tis, the niggers are not all in Guinea!"
Isabella insisted, "I'll have my child again."
"How can you get him?" asked Mrs. Dumont. "And what have you to support him with, if you could? Have you any money?"
"No," replied Isabella. "I have no money, but God has enough." (Sojourner Truth Slave, Prophet, Legend by Carleton Mabee with Susan Mabee Newhouse.)
God helped Isabella/Sojourner Truth to free Peter by connecting with Quakers and lawyers like Herman M. Romeyn, Charles H. Ruggles and A. Bruyn Hasbrouck, who had served a term in Congress.
God also helped another New Yorker to connect with help to secure freedom. God sent Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, some friends to help him flee from house arrest in China in April 2012 and to continue the human rights activism he was doing in China into the United States. Guangcheng played a key role in exposing forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced in China as part of China's One-Child Policy. Guangcheng now lives in New York and travels out of state.
On Tuesday he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape.
A few months ago Guangcheng received the 2012 Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize, named after a deceased California congressman who was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the U.S. Congress, according to a January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert. The article says that the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice has given previous annual awards to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Holocaust survivor and activist Elie Wiesel and Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who hid and protected more than 1,200 refugees during Rwanda's genocide.
Guangcheng said regarding US negotiations with China in translated remarks read in English by actor and Tibet advocate Richard Gere, "There should be no compromise, even if there are large business interests at stake - dignity, freedom and justice are more important" (January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert.)
"Porque vosotros, hermanos, a libertad fuisteis llamados; solamente que no useis la libertad como ocasion para la carne, sino servios por amor los unos a los otros," dice Biblia Bilingue Version Reina-Valera 1960. The Bilingual Bible New King James Version says, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
When Sojourner Truth's son was freed, she did not use her liberty as an opportunity to nurture her flesh in isolation. Instead she spoke to many for the liberty of African Americans and women. Likewise when Chen Guangcheng was freed from China, he did not nurture his flesh in isolation in New York. Instead he has been speaking out for the freedom of his family, the unborn and all Chinese people.
Freedom for the maximum number of people also requires interaction with enemies. A Japanese Proverb says, "Send salt to your enemy."
Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans were forced into detention during World War II. The fight for Japanese-American/Asian-American justice took from the 1940s until 1988 when Congress passed and former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Asian Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000.
Peter's sale was illegal. New York law prohibited blacks being sold or sent out of state to circumvent their being freed within the state. Sojourner Truth, who was named Isabella at the time, confronted Mrs. Dumont. "Mrs. Dumont replied, "A fine fuss to make about a little nigger!...A pity 'tis, the niggers are not all in Guinea!"
Isabella insisted, "I'll have my child again."
"How can you get him?" asked Mrs. Dumont. "And what have you to support him with, if you could? Have you any money?"
"No," replied Isabella. "I have no money, but God has enough." (Sojourner Truth Slave, Prophet, Legend by Carleton Mabee with Susan Mabee Newhouse.)
God helped Isabella/Sojourner Truth to free Peter by connecting with Quakers and lawyers like Herman M. Romeyn, Charles H. Ruggles and A. Bruyn Hasbrouck, who had served a term in Congress.
God also helped another New Yorker to connect with help to secure freedom. God sent Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, some friends to help him flee from house arrest in China in April 2012 and to continue the human rights activism he was doing in China into the United States. Guangcheng played a key role in exposing forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced in China as part of China's One-Child Policy. Guangcheng now lives in New York and travels out of state.
On Tuesday he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape.
A few months ago Guangcheng received the 2012 Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize, named after a deceased California congressman who was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in the U.S. Congress, according to a January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert. The article says that the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice has given previous annual awards to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Holocaust survivor and activist Elie Wiesel and Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who hid and protected more than 1,200 refugees during Rwanda's genocide.
Guangcheng said regarding US negotiations with China in translated remarks read in English by actor and Tibet advocate Richard Gere, "There should be no compromise, even if there are large business interests at stake - dignity, freedom and justice are more important" (January 29, 2013, Reuters article entitled "Blind dissident urges global pressure on China over rights" by Paul Eckert.)
"Porque vosotros, hermanos, a libertad fuisteis llamados; solamente que no useis la libertad como ocasion para la carne, sino servios por amor los unos a los otros," dice Biblia Bilingue Version Reina-Valera 1960. The Bilingual Bible New King James Version says, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
When Sojourner Truth's son was freed, she did not use her liberty as an opportunity to nurture her flesh in isolation. Instead she spoke to many for the liberty of African Americans and women. Likewise when Chen Guangcheng was freed from China, he did not nurture his flesh in isolation in New York. Instead he has been speaking out for the freedom of his family, the unborn and all Chinese people.
Freedom for the maximum number of people also requires interaction with enemies. A Japanese Proverb says, "Send salt to your enemy."
Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans were forced into detention during World War II. The fight for Japanese-American/Asian-American justice took from the 1940s until 1988 when Congress passed and former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the internment and said that the government's actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The US government eventually dispersed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to Asian Americans interned and their heirs. Each citizen who had been interned was awarded $20,000.
Labels:
Abortion,
African American Slavery,
Africans,
Americans,
Asians,
Black History,
Chen Guangcheng,
China's One-Child Policy,
Chinese,
Disabled,
Diversity,
Freedom,
God,
Japanese,
Latinos,
Relationships,
Sojourner Truth
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