CUSIB News
Ann Noonan, Executive Director of the independent and non-partisan Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB –cusib.org) spoke at the memorial service in New York for Liu Xiaobo on Saturday, July 15.
Liu Xiaobo Memorial Service
New York
July 15, 2017
ANN NOONAN, CUSIB: One behalf of the Committee for US International Broadcasting, Ted Lipien and I would like to assure you that we continue to support giving voice to those whose country leaders would otherwise silence them. We will continue to support Radio Free Asia China Services, and Voice of America China Services, so brave souls like Lui Xiaobo, Liu Xia, and all democracy seekers can be heard.
In 2010, when we held the Liu Xiaobo Day in New York, State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz, a Democrat from the South Bronx, was the only elected official to send a Proclamation honoring the Nobel Prize Laureate. Senator Diaz has asked me to extend his condolences to all gathered here today, with the hope that Lui Xiaobo’s wife, Lui Xia, will find comfort and strength in these difficult days ahead of her.
I was reading about Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen’s prayers for Liu Xiaobo, and saw that he compared Liu Xiaobo to the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah. Right now, I’d like to read Cardinal Joseph Zen’s prayer.
Cardinal Zen wrote: “Dear Xiaobo, You are like the Prophet Jeremiah in my heart. You are like a lamb taken to be slaughtered. We demand justice for you from the Lord, but your wisdom has reminded us of the mission of a prophet, which includes suffering and death. Through you and your wife, we have offered to our Lord the reform of the Motherland. Your blood will not be shed in vain. May God bless you and grant you peace!”