Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Flowers and messages honoring the victims in the May 15 shooting at Geneva Presbyterian Church are placed outside the church in Laguna Woods, California.
Photo: CNA

Two US lawmakers have introduced a bill to award a medal to John Cheng (鄭達志), a Taiwanese-American doctor who was killed last month in a confrontation with a shooter at a church in California.

US representatives Katie Porter and Michelle Steel, whose districts are in the Orange County area where the incident occurred, earlier this month introduced legislation to bestow the Congressional Gold Medal on Cheng.

What does it feel like to fight for someone else’s land, which has been occupied by their enemy, while your homeland is under occupation? What is the logic and motive behind this decision?

Kavsar Kurash turns 24 this year. He and his mother are US residents. He left the US four years ago to attend college in Sweden. He applied to enlist with the foreigners fighting for Ukraine when the war began.

He said that he might not be able to do too much for them, but he could do great things for himself: He could put his conscience to rest, and sleep peacefully at night.