Contributors
Rufina Amaya
Rufina survived the massacre of almost 900 people at El Mozote, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981. She died in March 2007 at the age of sixty-four. She is survived by her few remaining family members and a large host of men and women who admired and supported her.
Bearing witness! She bore a lot: the killings of nearly an entire village, including four of her children and her husband, by US trained government thugs, controlled by fear and ordered by paranoid leaders. The soldiers wrenched her two little babies from her arms. Ronald Reagan's administration trained and equipped the Salvadoran army whom he called "Freedom Fighters," and supported a government that Bishop Oscar Romero, at the cost of his own life, courageously denounced as perpetrators of gross violations of human rights and the murders of innocent people. As her response to this atrocity, she spoke to small groups about her Catholic faith and practice. She emanated a genuine aura of conviction, while remaining peaceful, utterly human and humble. May she rest in Ever-Abiding, Light-Bearing Peace.
Eugene C. Bianchi, Ph.D.
Eugene Bianchi is an Emeritus Professor of religion at Emory University. He recently completed a second novel, The Children’s Crusade. He is currently working on Coming To Be: A Spiritual Memoir. I enjoyed reading The Bishop of San Francisco: Romance, Intrigue and Religion (Authorhouse, 2005) and Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits, co-authored with Peter McDonough (University of California Press, 2002). He lives in Athens, Georgia, with his wife, Margaret (Peggy) Herrman.
Daniel Berrigan, S.J.
Dan grew up, one of six brothers, in Syracuse, New York. His dad was second-generation Irish-Catholic, a union man who left the Catholic Church, and his mom was German, a charitable woman known to feed the hungry during the Depression.
Paul Kelly tells this story about Dan: “In the 1970s, after his speech at University of New Hampshire and the congratulations had dwindled down, Father Dan Berrigan and I sat on a grassy mound outside the Athletic Center’s massive hall, relieved that it was over, that the Governor had not sent in the National Guard and the State Police to break it up. A woman beyond middle but not quite at elderly age, stalked right up, just below Dan’s feet, but their eyes were on the same level because of the little hill we were using for a backrest. 'Your speech was fine, but your poetry is immoral.'
“Dan took the long piece of grass out of his mouth and said quietly, no smile, quite serious, 'Yes, I used the word penis in [one] poem.'
“The woman grew angry and made some insulting remark. Dan, never changing expression, neither warm nor cold, simply answering a question, said, 'Penis, the word used for part of the human anatomy. She left. And I knew I had just experienced another 'magic moment' in my life."
Some of Dan's works:
Prayer for the Morning Headlines: On the Sanctity of Life and Death, Apprentice House, 2007
The Raft Is Not the Shore:Conversations Toward a Buddhist/Christian Awareness, Orbis Books, 2000
And the Risen Bread: Poems 1954-1997, New York, 1998: Fordham University Press
Hole in the Ground: A Parable for Peacemakers, Minneapolis, 1987: The Honeywell Project
Robert Brophy, Ph.D.
Bob Brophy is a native San Franciscan. After graduating from St. Ignatius High School in 1946, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Los Gatos. After the usual course of Jesuit training, Bob earned his Ph.D. in English, with a concentration American Literature, at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
From 1965-68 he taught literature at the University of San Francisco, counseling students and directing liturgy. After tumultuous disagreements with the administration and community over justice and peace issues, he left the Jesuits in the fall of 1968. He married Mary Lou Berg that same year. They had four children, Charise, Christopher, Rachel, and Matthew. Bob and Mary Lou know the deep sorrow of losing their daughter, Charise Marie. May she Rest in Peace. Mary Lou and Bob have been divorced since the early 80's.
From 1968 until a 1996 retirement, Bob taught on the English faculty of California State University at Long Beach, lecturing also in American Studies, Religious Studies, and Comparative World Literature, in the last of which he still teaches “The Bible as Literature.”
Bob has authored or edited seven books, the latest of which are Robinson Jeffers: Dimensions of a Poet (1995) and William Everson: Remembrances and Tributes (1995). He has been editor of The Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, 1968-1996, and of Jeffers Studies 1997-2002, where he remains as senior editor. To indicate that he is still deeply immersed in Ignatian spirituality, here is his book recommendation at Christmas ’07: “my little Justice-Faith group, eight of us, yesterday finished discussing The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times by Dean Brackley, S.J. for the same purpose—pretty much Liberation Theology set to St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises.”
Morgan Zo-Callahan
Morgan Zo Callahan was born in New York City, son of single mom, Vivianne duBouchet Lovell, a reporter for the French press whom he never met but has never forgotten. He was adopted in 1949 by Morgan and Helen Callahan, and raised Catholic, “Irish” style. He was basically a happy boy, loving sports and nature above all. Early on, he also demonstrated interest in religious and psychological questions and activism. He loved hearing Gregorian chant at mass, but felt even at a young age that his religion could be oppressive, teaching more guilt and sin than love. He liked visiting with older adults very much. Early in life, he participated in writing campaigns regarding civil rights for African Americans and petitioning China to release political prisoners, especially Catholic priests. He loved walking alone in nature and playing basketball and baseball. He rooted fanatically for the New York Yankees and Yankee Stadium was his favorite cathedral (more than St. Patrick's), a source of awe and wonder and the unexpected showering of life and excitement that gathered all his youthful enthused attention.
After high school in 1962, he entered the Jesuits and remained for nine years, an invaluable time of learning and being introduced to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and to Eastern philosophy by a Jesuit priest, Father James Healy. Morgan obtained an M.A. in Philosophy at Gonzaga University, spending some time at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. He was trained as a community organizer at the Alinsky Institute in Chicago in 1970. After leaving the Jesuits, he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for a year of community organizing in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico in 1971. Back from Mexico, he worked as a teacher and again volunteered with César Chavez. He began a wild spiritual experimentation with different religious traditions in 1973, including a five-year relationship with the spiritual master, Master Adi Da. During this period he met and conversed with spiritual teachers such as Suzuki Roshi, J. Krishnamurti, Alan Watts, Ram Dass, Chogyam Trungpa, all the while keeping up a relationship with his Jesuit spiritual director.
He has known teaching to be his first and last calling since he was in high school; he continues to teach in a private high school (PSAT/SAT), in adult school (E.S.L.), and in hospitals-hospices ("Mental Fitness" for older adults).
He’s presently interested in expanding his understanding about “the last things,” hospice, death, dying, and living fully for older adults. He remains involved with two projects in Mexico, www.matraca.org and www.vivirjoven.org. With admired African friend, Caspar Pedo, he’s helping, along with Tom Zeko, to get books from the Loyola High L.A. family to Ger-liech Primary School, which Caspar and his friends built in Nyanza Province, the poorest province in Kenya.
Lic. Leticia Alba Cristales
Leticia worked for the Veracruz State Commission for Human Rights as the Director of Attention to Women, Vulnerable Groups and Victims. She was a supporter of Matraca and several groups who cared for those with AIDS/HIV; with abused women and children; with legal rights of very poor people. Leticia now has moved on to new challenges in her practice of the law.
Angelina Lopez Cuevas
Angelina and her husband, Jose, along with her daughter Gladis moved into Casa Matraca in 1998. Gladis, now 13 years old, attends junior high school; Jose still works as a waiter; and Angelina continues to live with as many as ten girls, caring for them as her own children. Angelina is responsible for Casa Matraca's everyday management.
Ed, Ph.D.
Ed was born in San Francisco. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1959. From 1963-68, he did post doctoral studies. From 1968 to 1994, he served as a Psychologist at a well-known and respected Medical Center. Since retiring, he volunteers as a docent at fine art museums.
Don Foran, Ph.D.
Don Foran, a former Jesuit priest, is Professor of English and Philosophy at Centralia College in the state of Washington; he is also works part-time as a professor of Literature at Evergreen State College, one of the most innovative state colleges in the country. He taught at Gonzaga Prep in Spokane, WA, and chaired its English department in the sixties. After doctoral studies in English at the University of Southern California, and postdoctoral work in theology and public policy at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, he taught at Seattle University and St. Martin’s University.
He is currently President of the Washington Community and Technical Colleges Humanities Association. He has made numerous presentations for various professional and academic groups, including a paper about Utopian Communities in the 19th Century for the Organization of American Historians in July 2006.
His students continue to delight and often astound him, and poetry and nonviolent action seem to him valuable resources in a fragile and beautiful world. “Sustainability must be our greatest common task and human dignity our most urgent concern.”
He and his wife, Maggie, live in Olympia, WA. Their daughters are currently on the cusp of graduate school.
Rev. Sam Haycraft
Sam was born in the Central Valley town of Dinuba, California. His early years involved lots of attention to horses, and "Mountain Life."
The Korean War interrupted his college life in 1949; he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and remained a Marine until 1953. After finishing college in 1954, he entered Hastings School of Law, San Francisco, and joined in discussion groups where Buddhism was a popular topic. That was when he made a personal choice to pursue the Teachings of the Buddha.
In 1963 Sam accepted an overseas assignment with the U.S. Department of Defense in Vietnam. He left government service, staying in Vietnam for private work. He remained in Vietnam for ten years. His interest in Buddhism intensified through exposure to Buddhism in an Asian environment, where, both in Cambodia and Vietnam, the protest against the US involvement in the war by Buddhist monks, came to international attention.
In 1995 he was ordained into the Order of Buddhist Ministers by Ven. Chao Chu. He's active in Buddhist studies at Rosemead Buddhist Monastery. Sam lives in Costa Mesa, California with his wife Emily and their daughter, Kimmie, who is a wonderful young woman, marathon runner, and golfer.
Jiyu-Kennett Roshi
Kennett Roshi (January 1, 1924-November 6, 1996) was the dharma heir of Koho Zenji for whom she had immense admiration and affection. She was his student at the Soto Zen Soji-ji monastery in Japan from 1962-’68. She came to Northern California in ’71 and was Abbess of Mount Shasta Monastery, which she established, for 24 years until her death.
Her books include:
The Liturgy of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives for the Laity
Collections of her lectures are published as The Roar of the Tigress, Volumes I and II.
Ken Ireland
Ken has been a student of Mahayana Buddhism for more than thirty years. He has practiced the major mediation traditions represented in the West, but he has spent most of his years on the cushion in Zen halls, the Hartford Street Zen Center under both Issan Dorsey and Philip Zenshin Whalen, in the Soto lineage, and working with Bob Aitken, John Tarrant and David Weinstein who are lineage holders in the Rinzai, or "koan," tradition, as well as the Soto school.
In 1989, along the several others, Ken joined Issan in founding the Maitri AIDS Hospice, among the first Buddhist responses to the AIDS epidemic. He was Maitri's Executive Director though 1993. After that he became the Associate Director of the Spiritual Center for AIDS Services in Oakland. With his teacher's blessing, he has taught basic meditation as well as created and officiated at ceremonies to mark important life moments, birth and death, unions, commitments and adoptions. For five years, he was the practice leader at the Tender Zendo, a meditation group for the indigent and homeless in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.
Ken was a member of the Society of Jesus for ten years, and followed the normal training for ordination at Weston College. In Berkeley he studied the Enneagram with Claudio Naranjo who introduced the modern version of this teaching to the West.
He currently lives in San Francisco, California where he is practicing, writing, as well as both examining and building connections between the meditation practices of Zen and the prayer life of Christians.
You can find some of his work online at Spiritually Incorrect http://truthspinners.blogspot.com and Buddha S.J. http://jesuskoan.blogspot.com
Robert Blair Kaiser
Robert Blair Kaiser was formally a Jesuit for ten years and has been informally so for many years. He has had a distinguished career as a religion reporter for The New York Times, Time, CBS. He is now a contributing editor in Rome for Newsweek. Among his books are: Cardinal Mahony, Clerical Error and A Church In Search of Itself, which is the source of his contribution to Meanderings. He is also a wonderful raconteur as well as a thoughtful, loving critic of the Catholic Church. He calls his recent novel, Cardinal Mahony, a "scenario to help seventy-five million American Catholics see the possibilities—to help them understand how they can be Catholic—and aggressively American as well. And why they should....Utopian? Yes."
Three newspaper editors nominated Kaiser for Pulitzer Prizes, and the book publisher E.P. Dutton nominated him for another Pulitzer for his exhaustive 634-page book on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, has been republished in 2008. Robert lives in Phoenix and Rome. His e-mail is rbkaiser@takebackourchurch.org.
Sophie Katz
Sophie was the mother of long-time Zen student, Joel Katz. She died during the great summer sesshin (Zen long retreat) in 2006. She lived in Quebec. Sophie has been published in several anthologies of minor Canadian women poets.
John Lounibos, Ph.D.
John writes: "My parents were both teachers. When I began the University of San Francisco in 1952, I switched majors from political science to philosophy that I loved. I attended lectures by Mortimer Adler. In 1954, after two years at USF, I joined the Jesuits. During my first seven years in the Jesuits I considered philosophy my major. At Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, John F. Kennedy greeted us on his presidential campaign. During my second year of teaching at Bellarmine High School in San Jose, California, Vatican II began and my academic interest shifted to theology. The death of JFK in 1963, the Vietnam War with its domestic protests, and the civil rights movement with MLK's and Robert Kennedy's assassinations in 1968 framed the social-political context for my theology studies. Daily mass, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, spiritual advice and solid theological foundations shaped my spiritual life. A 1967 workshop by Carl Rogers and John Coulson, exponents of client-centered psychology, had an effect on the shape of my emotional life. I was ordained a priest in 1967. The next year I traveled to Europe with three companions to study German at the Goethe Institute, learn Italian in Florence and work as a civilian chaplain for the 3rd Infantry in Wuzburg, Germany. Eighteen months later I returned to the U.S. to begin my Ph.D. in theology at Fordham University. At Fordham I met Anne Marie Liston. We were released from our canonical obligations, married, and soon began parenting a son and a daughter.
"In 1971, I began full time teaching theology and religious studies to undergraduates at Dominican College, twenty minutes north of New York City. Over 36 years in the classroom, I prepared at least twenty-five different courses in philosophy, ethics, religious studies and theology for about 6,000 students.”
Doug McFerran
Doug McFerran entered the Society of Jesus in 1952 and left in 1962 at the end of the three-year teaching period called Regency. He taught at a military school in Brentwood before moving on to the community college system in 1966. He retired in 2003 but keeps a hand in education with several online courses, including a survey of world religions.
He has published several books on occult lore under the pseudonym of David Farren, as well as a study of Sinn Fein and the IRA under his own name. Most recently he edited a volume of recollections by former Jesuits entitled Unexpected Company: Former Jesuits Tell Their Stories. An early novel, Mendaga's Morning, which appeared in England in 1979, has now been republished and is also available through Amazon.com and other online booksellers.
He lives in the San Fernando Valley with Adrienne, his wife of twenty-five years. They have two grown children who live in the Bay Area.
Doctor Eng Moy, M. D.
Dr. Moy was born in Pyapon, Burma in 1942, the oldest of seven children—he has two younger brothers and four sisters. He went to Catholic school from kindergarten through high school. He graduated from the Institute of Medicine in 1967. His training took place in Rangoon General Hospital for one year. In 1970, Dr. Moy came to the United States, training in Baltimore for a year as a rotating intern. From 1971 to 1976, he trained as an anatomical and clinical pathologist. He was in the US Navy from 1976 to 1981 and honorably discharged as Commander in 1981. That year he bought a medical practice in Southern California where he continues to advise his patients to “eat well, exercise, and not to get angry.”
He has a refreshing sense of humor and a practical, down-to-earth approach to Buddhism.
Robert R. Rahl
Morgan says this about Robert: “I remember Robert Rahl from Loyola High School days. He was, and is a marvel. We graduated together in 1962; he earned a classical diploma with honors. He was the smartest student I knew, handily conquering Greek. We worked together our junior year on the yearbook, El Camino; he became the Editor-in-Chief in our senior year. Over the years we've stayed in touch, but it is only recently that I discovered his brilliant, touching poems. They come from the period in the mid 1990's when he was dealing with the fallout from advanced prostate cancer. I find them full of light and tenderness, just like being with Bob.”
Robert is a retired professor of humanities and technical consultant. He grows miniature roses and preternaturally hot peppers
Elizabeth Goodell Russell,Ed.D.
Elizabeth is an eighty-five year-old mother of five and stepmother of six who has twenty-three grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy and a doctorate in education. She has lectured in the United States, India, and Turkey and currently lives in California. She is author of Reading Under the Covers, published by iUniverse in 2005, edited by Ken Ireland. Elizabeth writes: "I spent the first half of my life searching although, had you asked, I couldn't have told you for what I was searching. Perhaps it was for love, for an end to loneliness, for someone to listen, perhaps for answers to my questions about the meaning of it all. Sometimes that search seemed futile but I was always aware of an elusive something, just out of my grasp, something that every once in a while revealed itself momentarily and kept me searching."
Elizabeth's book is intended "to generate a conversation that is missing in society today—a conversation about aging that views life as an opportunity not to be squandered, but to be cherished until the end." Elizabeth is the copy editor of Meanderings.
Gary Schouborg, Ph.D.
Morgan says, “A conversation with Gary is simultaneously an intellectual challenge and playful fun. He is my hermano, mentor, and dear friend. More than any other philosopher, Gary has shown me how valuable are subtle distinctions, patience, and rational, tolerant attention to what's being discussed. He encourages us all to pay attention to our experience, to add the balanced rational gift of incisive intellect to understand our complex, multi-variegated lives, and to extend that rationality to our philosophies and theologies.
“He is my principal source of information about classic movies and conversations about sports. We are unnervingly honest with each other, in a supportive way. Gary's quite like one of his heroes, Socrates who set the stage, through attentive dialogue and insightful questions, for people to find within themselves answers to the questions they were really asking. Gary facilitates a dynamic that allows one to come to understand what is meaningful in one's life. I experience Gary as a giant teddy bear with bright lights and mischief in his eyes; he’s extremely huggable, looking both to have a ball and a meaningful conversation.”
Gary received his Ph.D. in philosophical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published articles about philosophy, psychology, religious studies, as well as corporate education manuals, and poetry. He is a partner of Performance Consulting, Walnut Creek, California, which provides both individual coaching and organization development.
He is currently constructing a naturalistic, developmental theory of enlightenment as a sense of unconditional well-being. Some of his articles can be found at http://www.performanceconsulting.org/gary/gary.htm
Correspondence should be addressed to Gary Schouborg, Performance Consulting, 1947 Everidge Court, Walnut Creek, CA 94597-2952. E-mail: gary@performanceconsulting.org.
Rebecca Shepard
Rebecca lives in Olympia, Washington, with her husband, Adam, and their, one-year old baby, Ella Sophia. She writes: "I find that my practice has helped me to become a strong, patient and compassionate mother, one that is totally devoted to raising our baby in a peaceful and happy environment. I can truly say that without meditation in our lives, this may not have been possible."
Rebecca started taking Vipassana Meditation courses taught by S.N. Goenka when she was in her mid-twenties, over ten years ago. She says that after her first Meditation course, she was hooked. She recounts how each course …would facilitate making her more aware of her actions, her feelings, intentions, how her mind and heart created her immediate world. "I served on a prison course at North Rehabilitation Center in Seattle, Washington. This really opened my eyes to seeing that there is a fine line between people in jail and people outside of jail. …[W]e are all victims and criminals to some extent. And Vipassanacan change that. I have seen it change who I am. It's given me new life, a real life. Peeled off are the layers to expose who I really am."
Joyce C. Sin
Kept up late into the night by the sweltering Los Angeles heat on September 3, '07, Joyce wrote a few words about her immersion into Buddhism.
“Ten years ago after I retired from my business, I wanted to continue to enrich my life. I started reading some Chinese Buddhist classics, the first being the Platform Sutra of 6th Patriarch. From the first page, I was drawn into his teachings completely, totally. What a profound, refreshing, and succinct path to liberation. I felt myself spiritually yielding. So I started my ten years' journey into seeking for the ultimate truth.
“Having a curious mind and being a voracious reader, I was led to various traditions of Buddhism. I had moments of ecstasy when I gained insights; the joy was so overwhelming that tears of gratitude fell ceaselessly. I also had periods of frustration when I would walk away in total puzzlement. Eventually those high and low periods all dissipated. I have gained the peace and tranquility of mind that I was looking for so passionately.
“Since the beginning of 2007, I've formed a non-profit organization to teach etiquette and good citizenship to new immigrants from China. Our mission is to promote good manners through integrating the practice of Eastern virtues such as loyalty, integrity, piety, and honesty with Western values such as altruism, aesthetics, cleanliness, consideration and compassion. Our goal is to encourage cultural sensitivity and raise awareness of both Eastern and Western traditions. We offer classes, discussions and demonstration at various learning levels in schools and club meetings to instill social confidence in daily life.” Joyce’s website is www.ewess.org. And she can be reached at infor@ewess.org.
Dilip Trasi
Dilip commands an immense wealth of knowledge about Indian religion. He also possesses ample wisdom and comradeship. He hosts a conversation-list (mostly discussing Eastern thought) called atmyadnyana, and is a disciple of Sai Baba.
Morgan says: “Dilip has offered me many links to wonderful spiritual treatises and public dialogues, which have helped me to appreciate Indian religious philosophy. I've learned about the teaching of Nisargadatta from http://www.sankaracharya.org/i_am_that.php. I've also been able to read parts of Jagatguru Adi Shankaracharya, the four Vedas,eleven Upanishads, Brahmasutras Mahabharata, and Ramana Maharshi's Who Am I, which is my personal favorite.”
Dilip designs and installs lighting for airways; he lives in Mumbai, India. He can be reached at: atmadnyana@yahoogroups.com.
Nitin Trasi, M.D.
Dr. Nitin Trasi is a gynecologist, with a post-graduate degree in the discipline from the University of Bombay (now Mumbai). Dr Trasi was born in Mumbai, India, to a traditional Hindu family. His mother, a devoutly religious woman, inculcated in him a love of religion and spirituality, while his physicist-mathematician father, instilled in him a scientific temperament. From childhood, he was fortunate to be in contact with several saints, but a long association with Sri Kamu Baba, a Sufi disciple of Sai Baba of Shirdi, primarily influenced him. He was also deeply impressed by the teachings and writings of several teachers past and present, including the Buddha, Jnaneshwar, Kabir, J Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Anthony de Mello and Alan Watts.
Nitin combines serious studies of religion and philosophy, with profound personal insight. He is the author of several published articles on the psychology of spirituality and spiritual Awakening. He is also the author of The Science of Enlightenment (D.K.Printworld P Ltd, 1999), which presents a comprehensive explanation of spirituality, mysticism, and God, in scientific terms. The book was selected as a reference book by the Department of Education, Government of India.
In 2000, Dr Trasi was invited to present a paper on his book at an International Conference at Bangalore, sponsored by UNESCO and several other international organizations. In 2001, Dr.Trasi was elected a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. He currently works and practices in Australia.
David W. Van Etten
Dave is the youngest contributor to "Meanderings." His insights are valuable, not just for their freshness, but because he brings a discernment and love that is so heart felt that he gives real life to the Jesus Teachings. This is what he wrote by way of introduction:
"My mother was a Sister of Loretto and my dad was a Jesuit before they met at the University of San Francisco during the summer of 1967 where they were taking summer school classes. They left their religious orders, got married, and had a daughter—my sister, Mary Grace—and a son, me. My parents live in San Jose and run a home daycare center, affectionately called the Van Etten Zoo. My sister lives in San Jose with her husband, Andy Miller, and their two kids, Anna Marie and Jake; she works for the San Jose Sharks. I am finishing my last year of law school at Bolt Hall, the University of California at Berkeley. I continue to wrestle with the life lessons learned growing up at the Van Etten Zoo and the theological instincts I developed during my Jesuit education in college at Santa Clara University."
Harry Wu
Harry talks about his upbringing: “My father was a banker and my mother had descended from a family of well-to-do landlords. My youth was one of peace and pleasure. Then in 1949 came the communist revolution, led by Mao. My life changed dramatically. During my teen-age years, my father lost all his properties. We had money problems. The government took over all the property in the country. We even had to sell my piano. You see, freedom is priceless. I had it. Then lost it. Then I finally got it back. You cannot understand what it means to have freedom unless you have lost it.” (World People’s Blog, November 16, 2005)
He is the author of three books. Laogai: The Chinese Gulag, published in 1991, is the first book to address the systematic abuses of the Chinese prison camps. Bitter Winds, published in 1994, is a memoir of his time in the camps. His latest book, Troublemaker, was published in 1996. It tells of his clandestine trips back into China to gather evidence about the Laogai and his detention by the Chinese government in the summer of 1995.
Harry has received awards from varying Human Rights groups around the world. He received honorary degrees from St. Louis University and the American University in Paris.
Harry lives in Virginia with his wife, Ching Mai and son, Harrison. His website: http://www.laogai.org.