Dr. Yang Jianli’s Speech to Friends in the Brookline CommunityJanuary 24, 2008 Michael Driscoll School in Brookline
When I returned from China last August, I said that “there is no way to know how many good-hearted people have put their efforts to secure my release and safe return to the United States, how many prayers have been said, how many wishes have been made, how many tears have been shed. At this emotional moment, my heart is filled with thanksgiving”. But tonight, I do have the privilege of seeing you personally and knowing how each of you worked and prayed so hard to regain my freedom. In particular, I want to repeat my deepest love and respect to my devoted wife Christina. Her grace and dignity–and her unflagging dedication to get me home–inspired countless people to put in an extra effort on my behalf. Without her summoning the inner strength required to persevere, I would not be home today. I love you and I am blessed and so proud that you are my wife. I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to directly say thank you to Dr. Carol Schraft, Dr. Jim Parziale, Ms. Marcia Lynch and all of our Driscoll teachers for raising and keeping the awareness in the school community of my plight, educating the children about the fight for freedom for the less fortunate people in the world, and for providing the most caring and loving learning environment for my son, Aaron. My heartfelt thanks also go to you, dear Driscoll parents, who offered day-to-day help to my family and provided warm homes for Aaron to play and to learn. I would not forgive myself if I forgot to say thank you to you, Aaron’s friends, for your genuine friendship and kindness that have sustained Aaron’s smile and good spirit in my absence. I want to tell you, children, parents and teachers, that I was deeply touched and truly encouraged by every postcard I received from you in my prison cell, especially those from children and those with pictures of Driscoll School. Because of you, I became stronger in my later prison days. I thank God for my dear brothers and sisters at All Saints Parish for keeping the faith in God in their weekly prayers for my wellbeing during my entire imprisonment. My special profound gratitude goes to the Brookline Board of Selectmen and the entire Brookline community for writing to both the American and the Chinese leaders seeking my release. Last but not least, I want to especially thank the State House and Senate for passing the resolution on my behalf, for which I am greatly honored and encouraged. As new immigrants from China, Christina and I feel very fortunate and blessed to live in this generous and compassionate community. You have shown us what a beautiful country America is, and what a loving people Americans are. Unfortunately, it is not practical or even possible to have such a nice gathering as this for all the people across America who, together with you, did not forget me in my darkest days. So I have been searching for a way to show my appreciation for this wonderful country. At the same time, I have been struggling to find a way to remind everyone that my release is not the end but the inception. My release, for which you labored so hard, has little meaning if I did not bear witness for the thousands of brothers and sisters who languish alone in prison back in China, without hope, without support, without dignity, for no other reason than exercising their right to speak freely, to assemble openly, to have faith of their own conviction, and to protest injustice under the protection of law. My release, for which you worked so hard, would be meaningless if it failed to remind us all of the literally hundreds of thousands of brave people who hold thousands of protests in China every year, against a One Party system that rules through fear, repression, and the denial of individual rights that we enjoy here in Brookline. Our fight against injustice in China must continue, and it must continue from here for the reason so eloquently and simply expressed by the Rev. Martin Luther King, whose birth we just recently celebrated, that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We must have what the Rev. David Killian, our rector at All Saints Parish, described last Sunday the Rev. Martin Luther King having, “the holy impatience of injustice.” So it is in this spirit of sincere thanks and solemn remembrance that I ask you for your continued support and your continued remembrance of the great work that lies ahead. Thank you.
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