A Name to Remember: Gao Zhisheng

Gao Zhisheng is an astonishingly courageous man, a lawyer who has stood up to defend "Falun Gong practitioners, “house church” activists, and other targeted citizens." Doing this, of course, he painted a bullseye on himself and has been imprisoned and brutally tortured. Since encouraging his wife and children to flee the country for the U.S., he has been "disappeared". Jay Nordlinger makes some poignant remarks on the letter his wife has sent the U.S. Congress:

My friends tell me that this great nation of the United States, which regards human rights as a cornerstone of its foreign policy, would never just sit and watch my husband suffer and do nothing.

I’m afraid her friends are wrong: terribly, grievously wrong.

More:

Thus they encouraged and advised me to write to you to seek help. I remember that, when my husband was still free, whenever major human rights cases arose in China, he would always look towards the United States. He always said: The United States is the cornerstone of world freedom, human rights and social order; the United States would not tolerate despotic rule and the wanton abuse of the weak and the masses.

Does the United States deserve such beliefs about it, such faith in it?

Does it? Do we? After all the times people standing against tyranny have looked to us, only to see us wipe our hands and walk away?

I pray that the Congress will take a stand. I know there's precious little that can be done against a Chinese government that holds all the cards. In the meantime, we can remember the name of Gao Zhisheng.