冲出族群的池塘，迈向自由的海洋
A Free Being First, A Chinese Last

每日一语：

你并不首先是个中国人。 你首先是个人。 更重要的是你首先是一个自由人。 你并不是任何族群的财产与产物。 你是一个独特的上苍的造物。 --- 陈凯

You are never first a Chinese. You are first a human being. More importantly, you are first a Free Being with Dignity. You are never a product or a property of any racial or ethnic group. You are always a unique existence by God. --- Kai Chen

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Dear Visitors:

My daughters Alex and Dom have just graduated from college and high school. Alex from Yale and Dom from Marlborough School in LA.

I am immensely proud of what they have accomplished with their lives. Alex will go into Peace Corps and she wants to go to Africa to serve for two years. My wife and I will visit her in Africa at some point. Dom will go to Brandeis University in Boston which was first established by Albert Einstein.

As I pondered upon what my daughters will face and venture in life, I realize how important it is for a parent to recognize the unique value each child has as an individual. The meaning of their existence is never up to the parent or any other person. It is up to themselves and God. We, as human beings, are never products or properties of any outside entity, be they family, nation, race, ethnic group, etc. We, as unique individuals each with a unique meaning by God, can only set out on our journey to find that unique meaning ourselves, and to fulfill it.

In Marlborough School graduation commencement, former U.S. Secretary of State, General Colin Powell made a great speech about how he has found the meaning of his life and fulfilled that meaning with diligence and tenacity. In Yale, former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, made a speech to encourage the students to strive for excellence. "Life is not just to live. Life is to strive." He said.

As I contrast what I have experienced in America and what I have experienced in China -- a narrow-minded culture, encaged by a nameless paranoia and collective hatred, I want to shout out loud to the Chinese people: Wake up from your thousands of years of stupor! Open your eyes in your soul and return from despotism and self-deception to humanity and freedom! Recognize your uniqueness as an individual in God's eye and realize that unique meaning endowed upon you only by God.

Come out of your dirty morass, shake off all the filth from your body and mind, dumped there by your ancestors, embark on a journey of self-discovery toward the ocean of freedom!

My best wishes to you all. Kai Chen 陈凯