Read

What We’re Reading – November 13, 2013

As we celebrate Veterans Day this week, it’s especially important to remember the sacrifice that the men and women of our military and their...

As we celebrate Veterans Day this week, it’s especially important to remember the sacrifice that the men and women of our military and their families make every day. Colonel Howe writes in The Washington Times on our military heroes as the strength of the Nation and discusses the Bush Institute’s Warrior Open golf tournament in September. News Channel 8 in the Dallas area also features a story this week on the golf tournament and highlights the inspiring story of retired Marine Staff Seargant Andrew Bachelder, a 2013 Warrior Open participant. Parade magazine reports on some of the unique challenges that our women veterans face when they return from the frontlines. The Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative is committed to addressing women’s veterans issues, along with the areas of jobs, wellness, family, education and housing, that all post-9/11 veterans may face when they return home.

Elliott Abrams, Former Deputy Security Advisor to President Bush, writes in The Washington Post on human rights in Iran. Abrams, who is a member of the Bush Institute’s Human Freedom Advisory Council, says Iran’s war on religious freedom has been especially damaging to Bahais, and he warns that President Hassan Rouhani’s government is following his predecessors’ footsteps in oppressing and persecuting Bahais in the country.  “Whatever the trajectory of the nuclear negotiations with Iran, diplomacy should never be allowed to obscure the harsh facts about Iran’s miserable human rights situation and the regime’s assault on Bahais,” Abrams says.

Another member of the Bush Institute’s Human Freedom Advisory Council, Melanie Kirkpatrick, recently reviewed Chinese dissident Bob Fu’s autobiography. Bob Fu is featured in the Bush Institute’s Freedom Collection. He was a leader in the student democracy movement at Tiananmen Square in 1989 who later converted to Christianity. In 1996, he was arrested and jailed for running a secret bible school. After his release, he and his wife escaped to Hong Kong and were later admitted to the United States as refugees. Kirkpatrick says that his book, God’s Double Agent: The True Story of a Chinese Christian’s Fight for Freedom, tells his inspiring story and details his own spiritual journey.