The group of attorneys dedicated to bringing Jiang to justice includes a variety of specialists. What brought these attorneys together? There are many rarely known stories behind their uniting. Here we will only cite one example.

Terri Marsh, the attorney in the Chicago lawsuit against Jiang, has earned a number of degrees. Her dissertation was on Socrates. Her training included the study of Greek and Latin, and extended even to include Pali.

After earning her Ph.D., Terri taught at the University of California San Diego, mainly teaching comparative literature and classics. The courses she taught were on Socrates, St. Augustine, Homer, and ancient Greek women. At the time she lived only two minutes away from the sea. Her life was comfortable, relaxing and carefree.

However, Terri seemed not to be satisfied. She began studying law and politics. After hesitating for several years, she was drawn to law, but had not quite decided whether to continue to be a professor or to go to law school.

On June 4, 1989, she watched on TV the young students in China being run over by tanks and shot by soldiers on Changan Street (Tiananmen Square). Tears came to her eyes and she thought to herself, “What can a teacher do when students are being killed?” She had hoped that one day she could help and protect those innocent people. On that very day, she made up her mind to go to law school. She accepted an offer of admission to law school and started her new life’s journey.

Terri craved knowledge about Socrates because she felt deeply drawn to Socrates’ wisdom. In ancient Greece, to be a good man (“agathos”) meant that one had a high social status. Those who defeated the greatest number of enemies were considered the best people. The concepts of morals and obtaining power were totally mixed up. The people with the most power were considered to be the best people. The Greek people could not simply cultivate and develop the notion of good ethics since that was something treated as only belonging to the weak and women. The lifetime contribution of Socrates was teaching people the difference between morals and reputation, social status, wealth and the ability to dominate. In Socrates’ teachings he said that human beings have a natural disposition and divine characteristics, and those things make up a person’s true being. If we remained faithful to our true selves, he said, then we can become better human beings.

In Western academic circles, Socrates is considered to be the father of ethics and philosophy. His concept of ethics was not based on status, rank, wealth, or reputation, but rather on achieving moral transcendence through understanding of self (or through finding one’s own shortcomings), and by finding one’s own true nature. He taught by the method of asking and answering questions, which was dubbed “the Socratic Method” by later generations. Socrates was poor and his appearance was common. He did not have magnificent attire, but possessed superb wisdom.

Though common Greek people widely accepted Socrates’ teachings, the upper echelon of society in Athens started to fear and envy him. Finally, Socrates was officially charged with poisoning Athens’ young people by publicizing heresy and propagandizing Gods different from what Athens worshiped. Afterwards he was convicted and forced to commit suicide by drinking poison.

In his conversation with his student, Plato, in Socrates’ Defense, Socrates responded to all accusations against him, saying that if the men agreed to let him off on the condition that he no longer teach others, he would respond, “Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this?” “… either acquit me or not; but whatever you do, know that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times.” [7]

When Terri read an essay entitled “Some Thoughts of Mine” by Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, her tears welled up and she thought, “My goodness! It’s as if the same person wrote these two articles. They’re so similar. Why does history have to repeat itself this way? Why don’t people accept historical lessons?” In order to prevent Socrates’ tragedy from repeating, Dr. Marsh decided to sue Jiang on behalf of Falun Gong.