Michelle Malkin » This is what standing up for freedom looks like

This is what standing up for freedom looks like

By Michelle Malkin • October 8, 2009 12:48 PM

Here is your reminder of what courage, determination, and standing up for freedom look like:

Twenty years ago, a Chinese tank pummeled into student athlete Fang Zheng as he fled Tiananmen Square. He lost his legs and his livelihood as he was reduced to selling cigarettes at a street stall.

With the help of US supporters, Fang is once again on his feet through a pair of prosthetic limbs. And in his first public act, he did something he had never tried before — he asked his wife to dance.

Before an audience including members of the US Congress and exiled leaders of the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, the 43-year-old Fang on Tuesday set aside his crutches and took his wife, Zhu Jin, by the hand.

…The effort to fit him with prosthetic legs was supported by advocacy groups including China Aid, which fights for the rights of Christians in the communist country, along with Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Terrence Sheehan, who treated him at the Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital in suburban Washington, hailed Fang for his resilience.

“Most of the folks come to me to get their prosthetics within two or three weeks or months. They don’t wait 20 years,” Sheehan said.

Chinese dissidents plan to put a video of Fang’s first dance on YouTube, hoping it will become a symbol of hope.

“This is a great moment of salvation,” said Yang Jianli, another US-based Tiananmen leader who spent another five years in prison after sneaking back into China in 2002.

“In the past 20 years, in his spirit, Fang Zheng has been standing — even without legs,” he said.

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Posted in: Repression,Worthy Causes

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#1

On October 8th, 2009 at 12:54 pm, verogolfer said:

Wonderful story.
#2

On October 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pm, SpeakEasy said:

Great story of personal courage however this is the most important part for our current struggle:

“Most of the folks come to me to get their prosthetics within two or three weeks or months. They don’t wait 20 years,” Sheehan said.

How much longer will this be true?
#3

On October 8th, 2009 at 12:58 pm, letget said:

Wonderful story. I am so very happy for Mr. Fang and his family. A great big thank you to all who made this possible. Thanks Michelle for this.
L
#4

On October 8th, 2009 at 12:59 pm, ThunderHawkk said:

You are wise in a subtle and clever way, SpeakEasy.
#5

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:16 pm, RedDog said:

Wow. And we cry about our problems. What courage.

Still, I pray our government does not grow as cruel and powerful as his.
#6

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:21 pm, paddy said:

How long until the Tienanmen Square protests are recreated in this country?
How many similar occurences have we seen since then in other repressive regimes…with eerily similar results?
Americans are free to protest, but what would you do if the tanks were to roll here…..? Fight….or run?
#7

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:23 pm, cicerokid said:

Still, I pray our government does not grow as cruel and powerful as his.

Waco, TX, RedDog
#8

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:26 pm, jwm said:

Just goes to show that you don’t need legs to have a spine. Too bad the politicians are jellyfish.
#9

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:26 pm, RedDog said:

On October 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pm, SpeakEasy said:
Great story of personal courage however this is the most important part for our current struggle:

How much longer will this be true?

Never underestimate the power of stupidity. Even most POWs manage to adapt to exteme conditions if necessary. Given enough time eventually despair, deprivation and opression become the new normal. How do you spell Soviet Union?

The longer our current American Marxist oppression lasts, the more likely the Rinos will crack and fold to it. “Better $.10 on the dollar than nothing…”
#10

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm, Hangfire said:

I can only pray that, when I am asked to stand up to the tanks, I have the resolve to do so.
#11

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm, Regulus said:

This story is living proof of an axiom:

“In the final accounting of life, the only number that will matter is how many times you got back up.”
#12

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm, 30 pcs of silver said:

Speakeasy, Hangfire and Regulus, well said!
#13

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

Just think how much sooner this moment would have happened had the evil American medical system been forced to compete against a government option! He would have been break dancing at Obama’s weekly “Wednesday Night Fever” partays long ago.
#14

On October 8th, 2009 at 1:49 pm, cicerokid said:

Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital

Fang has the best insurance plan no amount of money can buy:

Christian brothers and sisters chipping in to assist someone in need.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, libtards.
#15

On October 8th, 2009 at 2:51 pm, rocketman said:

***
The courage of the Chinese protesters was so inspiring.
***
Too bad our government threw them all “under the bus”. And it will get a lot worse as President Obama (PBUH) appeases his way into the future and sells out liberty.
***
John Bibb
***
#16

On October 8th, 2009 at 3:31 pm, Danceswithdachshunds said:

Liberals are simply outraged that, even after a twenty year delay, Mr. Zheng still managed to beat them out of paying them a prosthetic limb tax.

Okay, that one wasn’t actually on the list but have you seen some of the things that are?
#17

On October 8th, 2009 at 3:51 pm, Danceswithdachshunds said:

I encourage all US businesses to mention the Tiananmen Square Massacre on their web sites and express their condemnation of the Red Chinese.

China censors all web pages with any mention of it so, if more and more companies do it, the Chinese people will notice more and more US web sites being blocked and, hopefully, cause them to think about ways to democratize their country and free themselves from thug rule.

The uncensored Wikipedia articles on the 1989 protests, both in English and Chinese Wikipedia, have been attributed as a cause of the blocking of Wikipedia by the government in mainland China. The ban of Wikipedia in mainland China was lifted, but the link to this incident in Chinese Wikipedia remained dead.
#18

On October 8th, 2009 at 4:17 pm, NJ-Aviator said:

That’s a courageous man pictured there.
#19

On October 8th, 2009 at 4:31 pm, Speakup said:

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
#20

On October 8th, 2009 at 5:19 pm, Big Hammer and Anvil said:

How much longer would Fang have had to wait under the rationed government health care now under consideration?

Fang stood on his pricipals (no pun intended) and now stands taller than the current corruptocrats now in office.
#21

On October 8th, 2009 at 5:29 pm, WarEagle82 said:

We must be vigilant to insure that we do not allow the central government to do this here.

I an concerned that we are closer to that point than we realize.

Fight this socialized nonsense NOW! Or be run down by tanks on the National Mall in how many years?

It is time for a new conservative party!
#22

On October 8th, 2009 at 5:49 pm, rightwingrocker said:

It is time for a new conservative party!

Do some research, as there are a few, such as the AIP and the ACP.

This one is my favorite, though.

RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
#23

On October 8th, 2009 at 6:29 pm, TooMuchTime said:

Never forget that the Chinese socialist gov’t does not admit that anything happened in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

Google agreed to censor themselves at the request of the Chinese gov’t. If you are in China and Google search “Tiananmen Square,” you get nothing.

This is why I don’t use Google. Ever.

And just one more reason why you can never trust a socialist.
#24

On October 8th, 2009 at 6:53 pm, Speakup said:

May 22, 2006
Is Left-Leaning Google Censoring Right-Leaning Websites?
By Noel Sheppard and Marc Sheppard

Something frighteningly ominous has been happening on the Internet lately: Google, without any prior explanation or notice, has been terminating its News relationship with conservative e—zines and web journals.

At first blush, one can easily ignore such business decisions by the most powerful company on the Internet as being routine. However, on closer examination, such behavior could give one relatively small (when measured by the size of its workforce) technology corporation a degree of political might that frankly dwarfs even its current financial prowess.

It’s Not So Easy Being A Conservative E—Zine

As reported by NewsBusters, the most recent occurrence of this unexplained phenomenon was Friday, May 19, when Frank Salvato, proprietor of The New Media Journal, realized that his content that day hadn’t been disseminated at Google News as it had been on a daily basis since he reached an agreement with the search engine in September 2005.
#25

On October 8th, 2009 at 9:17 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

Huzzah!
#26

On October 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm, Kevin K. said:

I am happy for Fang Zhen and his wife. What a personal achievement for him (and a great way to celebrate being mobile again!). And only in America–at least, the America that we love and try to return to her glory days.
#27

On October 11th, 2009 at 6:24 pm, MtsEdge said:

Fang stood on his pricipals (no pun intended) and now stands taller than the current corruptocrats now in office.

Truly, this man deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. That is, if it really meant standing up for peace and freedom.