A Few Words to My Beloved America
对我所热爱的美国进一言

- Don't be Changed by the World, Change the World -
美国： 坚守你自身特殊的使命与信念，你才能主导世界走向自由

By Kai Chen 陈凯 12/10/2009

Ayn Rand once stated that the fountainhead of human progress only comes from the "Unmovable Movers" - those who have the courage to stand by the moral principles. We need to heed her words, especially today.

Quite often I am asked why I am being an activist in a seemingly hopeless struggle against a powerful entity - the Communist regime in China. People ask: "How can you change the world all by yourself? You are just one individual. You have to change yourself just to survive the world. We all do." My answer is as always: "I may not be able to change the world as most people perceive what "change" is. But by NOT allowing myself to be changed by the world, my own very existence has already changed the world."

When Obama took over the Oval Office, he promised to "change/transform" America. But he never mentioned where to. What is his standard and direction for that change? From somewhere to nowhere? From the meaningful to the meaningless? From existence to nihilism? From freedom to tyranny/despotism? Where to ? How to? By what?

Richard Nixon once also stated that the criterion for being a great man is whether he wills to alter the world. By that criterion, Hitler had altered the world by his murderous atrocities. Stalin had altered many people's lives by torturing them and murdering them. Mao had altered the world by eliminating 70 to 80 million innocent lives in China and killing many American soldiers in Korea and Vietnam. Are they, by Nixon's standard, great men? Winston Churchill once preached that to be great, one must, first and foremost, be GOOD. But Nixon and Obama, American Presidents, want to corrupt people's mind and soul with a blatant moral nihilism. How weird and perverse does this whole thing (of change/alteration) look and sound?!

I came to America in 1978 to play basketball in five cities when I was with the Chinese National Team. I traveled the world during the 1970s representing Chinese military and China. America moved me in a way I had never expected:

America moved me because American people showed me that integrity, honesty, freedom and human dignity really existed. American players, on and off the court, showed me what "professionalism" (an alien concept to the Chinese) was. America made me realize that I was much more than a physical body: I am a moral and a spiritual being. I am not some soulless zombie/eunuch the Chinese communist authority wanted to mold me and everyone else in China into. Now the Chinese communist regime, with their increasing power with help from America and the West, set out to mold everyone in the world to be just like the Chinese - "Eunuslawhores" (eunuch, slave, prostitute all in one). America was like a lighthouse in the misty darkness, beaming brightly, illuminating the world with the light of freedom, calling upon everyone with dignity and conscience to stand up for themselves, for justice and goodness. For that reason alone, for the reason of being free, I immigrated to America in 1981, quitting at the peak of my basketball career in China. Having witnessed the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989 and increasingly realized my foremost identity as a free man, I proudly became a naturalized American citizen.

Indeed I was born in China, but I chose to be an American, for only one reason - to be free.

In basketball, a good coach always preaches going back to the fundamentals every time his team is in trouble. America is in trouble now. Expediency and moral relativism/nihilism cannot save America from the current crisis. America is in trouble because America has deviated for sometime since Ronald Reagan was the President, from its very own fundamentals -- the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, the most salient documents ever produced in human history to guide a progressing/perfecting human society. Indeed there have been and still are many societies in the world that are anti-humanity, anti-freedom, such as China. The time is now for America to go back to its founding principles by its founding fathers.

As a father of two daughters, I often wonder what kind of world we as Americans will hand over to them. I believe there is a direction by God, by our conscience, for us to follow. We are not just some self-deceiving creatures by our environment/birth/circumstances walking in the woods around a circle, desperately and hopelessly. I sometimes advise my daughters: Don't worry about changing the world or aiming at some result you desire. Just make sure you are not changed by the world and others. Just make sure you remain true to yourself and the meaning of your existence by God. America: I hope you are listening.

May God bless this great nation endowed with a special mission, a special meaning, a special people. May God bless this last hope of mankind, the last bastion of human freedom.

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对我所热爱的美国进一言

美国： 坚守你自身特殊的使命与信念，你才能主导世界走向自由

陈凯 12/10/2009

安. 兰德(Ayn Rand)曾说过人类社会进步的源泉来自那些“不可动摇的推动历史前进的人”。 我们今天特别要聆听她的警句明言。

人们经常问我为什么我要执著不变地以一个个体的身份反抗那个强大的中共专制政权。 他们问： “你一个人有什么用？ 你怎么能改变世界？ 你只能改变自己去适应世界。” 我的回答总是不变的： “可能在你们的眼睛里我并没有改变世界。 但你们看不到由于我坚守了我生命的意义与原则而没有被世界所迫而改变自己，我的存在本身就已经在改变着世界。”

当奥巴马被选入白宫时，他曾许诺“改变”。 但他从没有讲（人们似乎也不关心）向哪儿改变。 他也没有讲根据什么向哪儿改变。 从有到无也是变？！ 从意义到虚无也是变？！ 从自由到专制也是变？！ 到底变到哪儿去？ 用什么去变？ 怎么变？

尼克松曾说过伟人的标准是他是否改变了世界。 用这种标准希特勒应该是个伟人，因为他的屠杀与战争着实改变了世界。 用这种标准斯大林也是个伟人，因为他的清洗与劳改营也着实改变了世界。 用这种标准毛泽东更应该是个伟人，因为他杀戮迫害的人数远远超过希特勒与斯大林杀人数量的总和。 他不光杀了无数的中国人，他还在朝鲜与越南杀了许多美国士兵。 他们真能被称为伟大的人吗？ 丘吉尔曾明确指出“伟大的人（或国度）一定首先是一个道德的人（或国度）”。 谁的“伟人”标准更接近真实？ 尼克松的还是丘吉尔的？ 尼克松与奥巴马作为美国总统公然鼓吹用道德虚无主义来引导美国。 多么卑鄙的灵魂上的扭曲啊！

我曾在一九七八年代表中国男篮访美。 我看到的美国感动了我：

美国人的人格的完整、诚恳与他们展现的自由与人的尊严让我感到存在的真实与自我价值的宝贵。 美国运动员所表现的场上场下的职业运动家精神在中国运动员身上根本找不到。 美国的存在使我意识到我自身生命的宝贵、使我懂得人首先是道德与精神的存在，而不是像中国的人们一样只是行尸走肉般的“宦奴娼”。 美国就像一座矗立在黑暗迷雾中的灯塔一样放射出自由之光照亮了仍旧呻吟在专制奴役下的世界上大多数的人们。 美国召唤着我与像我一样的崇尚尊严热爱自由的人们站起来为自身的权利与社会正义而博争。 就是因为这个追求我于一九八一年移民来美。 在见证了一九八九年的天安门大屠杀之后，我更认同于美国的价值而在同年加入美国国籍。 我虽生在中国，我骄傲地选择了作一个美国人，只因为一个原因--我热爱自由。

如你懂篮球你就会知道： 一个好的教练总是在自己的队打的失常的时候强调回到篮球运动的基本原则去，因为它是永恒不变的。 在美国的充满危机的今天，一个优秀的领袖应强调的是回到美国建国的本源去--美国的独立宣言与美国宪法。 这些指导性文献是自人类有历史以来最起于人性的、最尊崇人的自由与尊严的、最代表人类的永恒价值的。 美国今天应真正回到美国的建国者们所弘扬的自由精神中去。 确实的说，美国今天太缺少像里根总统那样执著地为人类的自由大声疾呼的、基原则而勇行的，不为庸人所扰的人。

作为两个女儿的父亲，我常常告诫她们： “不要总想控制后果而试图去改变他人与世界。 坚守你生命的原本轨迹、追求真实的价值、发现你自身生命的意义。 重要的不是去改变他人与世界。 重要的是不要让他人与世界改变了你”。 我真心希望美国在聆听我所说的。

愿上苍祝福美国--这个人类最后的希望、这个自由最后的堡垒。