Cong Thanh Do is back in the U.S.A. after spending 38 in jail in Vietnam.
"Do’s arrest exposed a double life he had led for seven years. By day, he was an engineer at Applied Materials. By night, he was an online freedom fighter who wrote political essays under a pen name, Tran Nam, who pushed for an end to Vietnam’s one-party communist system.
He and his wife had fled Vietnam by boat, arriving in the United States as political refugees in 1982. Even as he settled into the routines of family life, fathering three children and starting a bakery on the side, Do never gave up on hopes of helping reform his native country.
’I have a very nice, comfortable life here in the United States. But a part of me is always in Vietnam,’ said Do, 47. ’I’ve always wanted to do something for Vietnam, so the people can enjoy what I do: democracy.’"
Powerful. It is people like that which make me love freedom even more.
We take it for granted, but imagine being arrested for expressing dissent towards the government. The day that happens in America, is the day I’m moving to Australia. I am confident (or perhaps naive) enough to think that will not happen again in America. It is a shame that it happens elsewhere in the world, though.
I admire people like Do, who fight for their natural rights, which are unfortunately not given by their government. However, it is important to note that his arrest only further demonstrates his point. His government is tyrannical and unnatural, to say the least. People need to be made aware of these massive facts, especially Vietnam’s citizens.
no governments "give" natural rights. They are self-evident and inalienable. They exist based on humans being human.
Would that they WERE self-evident and unalienable. If they were such, Cong Thanh Do would never have been imprisoned. Natural rights are true. No, they are TRUE, and as such ought to be evident and unalienable.
I hoped the "38" was only hours, and the indefinite was frightening, though logic was against years. Even "days" is horrible. Young Ashbrooke, you are right in your implication; this man is heroic.
If you go to the The Democracy Club For Viet Nam you see the names and even faces of many in Viet Nam who are not free, but imprisoned as Cong Thanh Do is not, thank God and the US Consulate representative who came for him. These are more heroes.
Rights are the creation of collectives of people. For that reason, the ultimate guarantors of "rights" has always been strength and courage...it’s something the Left always forgets.
If rights are the creation of men, then they are not absolute. Give me rights endowed by my Creator. Then they are natural, inalienable, and absolute, even if lesser authorities abuse them.
What I mean’t by "natural rights, which are unfortunately not given by their government" is simply as follows. Freedom of Speech is an inherent human right. To be human means you are, by rights given by a higher Authority, able to speak freely. However, sometimes tyrants and tyrannical governments deny those rights.
It is possible for men to control others so entirely that they latter are denied their rights which are inherent in our very soul. It is something natural which when taken away, forces individuals to action to restore their "inalienable rights."
That is all I mean’t. Yes, they are self-evident and inalienable. I’m not disagreeing with you, anon. All I mean’t was that some governments try (and some succeed) to take away those rights.
By governments giving us our rights, I simply mean’t the governments were not forcibly taking them away from us.
Semantics. Rights are the creation of society -- as far as I know, the Bible doesn’t lay down a set of political and civil rights. And those rights are just vain words unless they are enforced. You folks need to become realistic. Not even the laws of gravity are "absolute."