"Who is Bishop John Galt?"
Wuxi Expat Hall of Fame Commisioner Kennesaw "Hui Shan" Landis asked this question before announcing the latest Wuxi Expat Hall of Fame induction: Bishop John Galt.
The bishop, whose character inspired Ayn Rand to write the novel Atlas Shrugged, created his real-life "Galt's Gulch" in the Wuxi China Expatdom in the early 1930's. Then, he created his hideaway for Chinese escaping Japanese persecution. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allied powers in 1945, he thought it was safe to close the Gulch. But the spectre of Soviet Communism controlling Eastern Europe arose and he has had to keep the Gulch operating and hidden every since. Recently, efforts by the former King of Wuxi and the Obama administration to bring about collectivism 2.0 has seen more of the world's creative leaders, including inventors, artists and businessmen, join in the bishop's efforts to "stop the motor of the world" and bring about the collapse of the collectivist society. The result has been the Wuxi China Expatdom -- the happiest place on Earth!
Galt, a pious Catholic, was also a great baseball and cricket player. As a baseball pitcher, he had a career record of 373 wins and 188 losses, 2507 strikeouts, and a 2.13 ERA. As a cricketeer, he recorded over 11,000 test runs (avg 55), over 11,000 ODI runs (avg 46), 263 test wickets (avg 31), 254 ODI wickets (avg 32).
Wuxi Expats from England, America, and the Catholic Church all expressed surprise that the Bishop was a giant in three fields of human endeavour. They all knew he was great in one, some two, but none, three. Said Landis, "It shows what a great compartimentalizer the Bishop was; as well as showing the man's supreme humility in the face of evidence that he shouldn't be!"
This induction must surely have been approved by his holiness.
ReplyDeleteThis induction is truly a blessed event. Good on the committee of the WCE HOF for doing it.