从麻省理工校长袒华看美国自由的代价

xpt

06-26-2019 纽约

据最近的新闻报导， 美国最老、也是最大的理工学院， 麻省（MIT）现任校长在给全校师生员工的电邮中表达了对最近美国政府对中国以及在美国的中国人、以及美籍华人的作为的袒护（见下面英文原件）。

读完之后不禁叹气：“这美国都怎么了？”

我的叹息和感慨来自一个非常简单的历史和政治事实。那就是现在、以及过去的许多美国人一直没有真正理解‘自由“是什么， 也没有理解”自由“的代价会是多大。

1.

我首先以麻省（MIT）现任校长、以及许多美国高校和社会精英为例讨论这个问题。这些人往往把美国政府现行的”抗中“的政策解释成“种族歧视”或“不公正”。在支持他们的论点时， 他们往往拿出爱因斯坦、费米、泰勒、等科学与社会的名人来证明， 没有一个开放和宽容的美国， 美国就不会有发达的科学和自由、民主的今天。

可这些校长和社会名流们没有意识到， 或忘记的是这些伟大的人物， 还有无数无名的人物， 都曾是抗击共产主义、抗击专制和独裁的斗士！这些人没有一天对共产主义、对纳粹、对任何专制妥协和弯腰的。

他们之所以来到美国不是因为美国的伟大， 而是因为自己祖国的堕落和黑暗！

2.

你听到过爱因斯坦在任何时候、任何地点谈到他“祖国”德国吗？看到爱因斯坦以“科学交流”的理由同纳粹德国眉来眼去吗？听到过爱因斯坦在战后要“落叶归根”到德国吗？

你看到爱因斯坦、费米、泰勒为了“解放全人类”而附庸与苏俄？把他们那些真正的科学“交流”到苏俄和德国吗？

没有。

倒是那些中国生、中国长的所谓美籍华人们如过江之鲫，不但成群结队， 而且敲锣打鼓， 去为这个专制、独裁的共产政府服务。

更有甚者， 这些身在美国的华人， 心总在“汉”。他们利用美国的自由和开放把应该的和不应该的全部都拱手送给中共。

3.

历史充满了惊奇和感叹。

如果不是在那对叫罗森伯格的物理学家夫妻从洛沙拉马斯国家实验室里把原子弹的秘密偷给苏联， 如果不是那位“爱国”的钱学森教授“愤”而回中国， 世界的今天会有多大的不同？

苏联和中国还会有成千上万的无辜被屠杀， 被监禁、被剥夺自由吗？

4.

为什么还有那么多的“校长”和名流们不理解中共和中国的区别？

为什么还有那么多的中国人要同中共同流合污？

5. 

给独裁和暴君们、以及他们的追随者自由， 其实就是我们自己在亵渎和瓦解真正的自由。

这些人把自由拱手交给那些暴君和独裁， 最后付账的是美国人民。

“Freedom is not free。”

自由不是没有代价的。

有几个人能理解这个不朽名言的真正含义？

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附件：

MIT News Office 

June 25, 2019

The following email was sent today to the MIT community by President L. Rafael Reif.

To the members of the MIT community,

MIT has flourished, like the United States itself, because it has been a magnet for the world’s finest talent, a global laboratory where people from every culture and background inspire each other and invent the future, together.

Today, I feel compelled to share my dismay about some circumstances painfully relevant to our fellow MIT community members of Chinese descent. And I believe that because we treasure them as friends and colleagues, their situation and its larger national context should concern us all.

The situation

As the US and China have struggled with rising tensions, the US government has raised serious concerns about incidents of alleged academic espionage conducted by individuals through what is widely understood as a systematic effort of the Chinese government to acquire high-tech IP.

As head of an institute that includes MIT Lincoln Laboratory, I could not take national security more seriously. I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage, and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such breaches.

But in managing these risks, we must take great care not to create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear. Looking at cases across the nation, small numbers of researchers of Chinese background may indeed have acted in bad faith, but they are the exception and very far from the rule. Yet faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone. 

Nothing could be further from – or more corrosive to -– our community’s collaborative strength and open-hearted ideals. To hear such reports from Chinese and Chinese-American colleagues is heartbreaking. As scholars, teachers, mentors, inventors and entrepreneurs, they have been not only exemplary members of our community but exceptional contributors to American society. I am deeply troubled that they feel themselves repaid with generalized mistrust and disrespect.

The signal to the world

For those of us who know firsthand the immense value of MIT’s global community and of the free flow of scientific ideas, it is important to understand the distress of these colleagues as part of an increasingly loud signal the US is sending to the world.

Protracted visa delays. Harsh rhetoric against most immigrants and a range of other groups, because of religion, race, ethnicity or national origin. Together, such actions and policies have turned the volume all the way up on the message that the US is closing the door – that we no longer seek to be a magnet for the world’s most driven and creative individuals. I believe this message is not consistent with how America has succeeded. I am certain it is not how the Institute has succeeded. And we should expect it to have serious long-term costs for the nation and for MIT.

For the record, let me say with warmth and enthusiasm to every member of MIT’s intensely global community: We are glad, proud and fortunate to have you with us! To our alumni around the world: We remain one community, united by our shared values and ideals! And to all the rising talent out there: If you are passionate about making a better world, and if you dream of joining our community, we welcome your creativity, we welcome your unstoppable energy and aspiration – and we hope you can find a way to join us. 

* * *

In May, the world lost a brilliant creative force: architect I.M. Pei, MIT Class of 1940. Raised in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he came to the United States at 17 to seek an education. He left a legacy of iconic buildings from Boston to Paris and China to Washington, DC, as well on our own campus. By his own account, he consciously stayed alive to his Chinese roots all his life. Yet, when he died at the age of 102, the Boston Globe described him as “the most prominent American architect of his generation.”

Thanks to the inspired American system that also made room for me as an immigrant, all of those facts can be true at the same time.

As I have discovered through 40 years in academia, the hidden strength of a university is that every fall, it is refreshed by a new tide of students. I am equally convinced that part of the genius of America is that it is continually refreshed by immigration – by the passionate energy, audacity, ingenuity and drive of people hungry for a better life.

There is certainly room for a wide range of serious positions on the actions necessary to ensure our national security and to manage and improve our nation’s immigration system. But above the noise of the current moment, the signal I believe we should be sending, loud and clear, is that the story of American immigration is essential to understanding how the US became, and remains, optimistic, open-minded, innovative and prosperous – a story of never-ending renewal.

In a nation like ours, immigration is a kind of oxygen, each fresh wave reenergizing the body as a whole. As a society, when we offer immigrants the gift of opportunity, we receive in return vital fuel for our shared future. I trust that this wisdom will always guide us in the life and work of MIT. And I hope it can continue to guide our nation.

Sincerely,

L. Rafael Reif