Mike Capuano: “I want everyone to know what this gentleman has done. To me, this gentleman is clearly a hero. We have used the word…”

“I want everyone to know what this gentleman has done. To me, this gentleman is clearly a hero. We have used the word, but understand what he did. Here is a gentleman who came from China, established a very successful, very comfortable life here in America: a wife and two children living in one of our best and most beautiful suburbs of Boston; well-respected in the community, well thought of, well loved. Very easy for him to live out the rest of his life in that comfort without any real concerns. He could speak any way he wanted to speak, feel any way he wanted to feel, do any work he wanted to do. But what did he do? He took himself voluntarily from that comfort on his own to go back to China to fight for democracy. If anyone here thinks they have the courage to do that, you are a better person than I am. I do not know that I would have the courage to do that. I wish I would, and maybe if faced with that someday, I hope I might be able to live up to those incredible standards. But I am not so sure. This is a true modern hero, fighting for what we all talk about all day long. We are here, with all of our differences, with all of our agreements and disagreements, fighting for a better democracy. That is what we are all here for. He is fighting for a simple democracy. We cannot abandon him.”