by Sara Johnson

While Occupy marches through the streets of Chicago protesting “corporate greed” (yet demanding they be given things they haven’t earned), “police brutality” (while breaking store windows and plotting acts of terrorism), and countless other ridiculously backward complaints, one man joined a large number of brave men and women who have risked their lives to experience the freedom we have been blessed with in America.

Over the weekend the blind Chinese activist, Chen Guangcheng, who escaped house arrest and risked his life to get to the U.S. embassy in China, finally made it to America. The 40-year-old activist, known as a leader in the civil rights struggle in China, is symbolic of a new breed of activists that the Communist Party finds threatening. Why? They appeal to the average citizen, making them effective in empowering others to join them. Chen was well known for fighting for disabled farmers’ rights and fighting against forced abortions in his community, and because of this, he and his family had been living under house arrest for about seven years.

Bob Fu, founder and president of the U.S.-based human rights group China Aid, played a key role in publicizing Chen’s escape and updating the events that took place leading up to his transport to the U.S.  Fu, who also escaped persecution from China, was instrumental in keeping pressure on our leaders here at home; getting Chen two opportunities to speak to Congress live from China. Fu’s PR success with this story helped make the average American aware of the dire situation Chen was in after making it to the U.S. Embassy adding pressure to our government leaders. The story was all over the news, and you would have been hard pressed to find an American who didn’t think we should protect Chen and get him to America.

Despite the public support, most American-born citizens don’t know what it is like to have a real fear of their own government, my generation in particular – the “20-somethings.” The average American under the age of thirty has barely been taught enough about the countries where citizens have or do live under oppression to really comprehend how blessed they are to live here. As Glenn has revealed on his program many times, there are many college professors that are teaching their students that America isn’t great and our government is oppressive. Any proof needed of that can be easily found in the “Occupy” movement.

As the “I want” generation demands free education, housing, and refer to a guaranteed job as a human right, Chinese citizens, like Chen, are fighting the right of life or the life of their second child. While young, single women around the country are complaining about their college making them pay tens of dollars a month for birth control, women in the Sharia governed countries would be stoned for needing it. Young people listen to music and watch TV shows and movies every day that talk about women like they are a commodity, well in countries like China, they are. The female infanticide rate is through the roof because of the one child policy. So, while women within our borders claim abortion is a matter of “women’s health and women’s rights,” citizens of China are fighting for the right to life, or at least to choose.

When in the last time you saw people fleeing the “oppression” of America to go to China? Never, yet that is exactly what many of the Occupy protesters are fighting for. They want guaranteed housing, healthcare, education, jobs, clothes – you name it, they want it, and it’s Uncle Sam’s job to provide it for them. Well Occupy, all of that can be found in communist China, along with forced abortions, death rooms for babies, more executions than any other country in the world, religious persecution, etc.

Chen arrived at NYU on Saturday and recounted how he made his way to America, and thanked those who helped him. He also shared some stories how he and his family were persecuted, and the fear he has that his extended family will be punished. Have you ever had to worry about the government physically hurting or imprisoning your extended family because of something you did? Of course not, but that doesn’t keep members of my generation from marching through the streets shouting “F*** the police, throwing things at officers and claiming police brutality.

Chen is expected to attend law school at NYU, a dream of his, and if NYU wasn’t too busy offering class credit to join the Occupy movement that’s pushing to overthrow the U.S. government for a system like the one Chen fled, they might take this opportunity to highlight what people are willing to risk to get to America. And, how unique our country is for allowing refugees, like Chen, to come to here and pursue their dreams.

We are all guilty of taking the blessings of America for granted from time to time, and our country isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it is exceptional. If we opened our borders and stripped away the immigration laws, do you think there would be a huge influx of people into our country or out of it? What country do people run to when they are being persecuted in their own country? Who do they ask for help from? There is one reason for that, and our current President refers to it as a “negative charter of liberties.”

Every American could probably learn a thing or two from Chen Guangcheng about how blessed we are to live where we do, but younger especially the younger generations. Every time you see a mother with two kids, a female or disabled child, even a (peaceful) protester, thank God you live in America.