When Nobel laureate and Russian exile Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to the United States in the mid-1970s, President Gerald Ford, to his eternal shame, refused to meet with him. It is to her eternal credit that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi traveled to meet the Dalai Lama, who, like Solzhenitsyn, is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and is exiled from his homeland. Some people cozy up to power. Others side with justice.

A good and timely point, especially given Benedict XVI's recent attention to the problems of the Catholic Church in China, and his longstanding concern for religious freedom in general.

Rarely agree with anything Pelosi does, but her actions there were honorable, and she should be commended for it.

The faster the old guard that runs China is decayed by the liberating power of global capitalism, the better.

How well I remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his book about "The Gulag Archipelago" along with his being imprisoned by the Soviet Union. When he wasn't maligning the U.S. to the American press, they quickly shunned him. In addition he was pro-life which made him an anathema to the liberal elites along the Charles. As a matter of fact I think I will find a copy of it and reread it. He was a definite too hot to handle issue for the weak kneed politicians of this country. You are precisely right about House Speaker Pelosi