I just watched a video of "Tank Man". That lone individual who stood in front of the Chinese Army tanks as they rolled in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. I didn't realize until I watched this that he actually climbed onto the first tank; looked down in the hatch. He could have easily been shot right then and there as the Army had been firing into the crowds of protesters - indiscriminately.
But he wasn't and he continued to stand in the path of the tanks.
He was willing to die for some basic freedoms. Some of the same freedoms that you and I enjoy and possibly don't appreciate enough. Sure, we think about what we have on Memorial Day or the 4th of July, but do we really know what we have?
In this country we're allowed to speak our minds, even when they disagree with the sitting governmental leadership. We also get the opportunity through voting to change the laws and leaders and effect other changes in our environment. It is a right that is bestowed on us through the Constitution (maybe Bill of Rights?) but it is a privelege that we get to exercise those rights and too few people really get that.
It did make me stop and think about what I'm willing to die for, though. This same story plays out all over the Middle East almost every day. Isrealis and Palestinians fighting over their homeland. Extremist willing to die for the causes and ways of life they believe are just (although I strongly disagree with them).
It is only through the courage of others that we live as we do today.
And Andy Young, a young American soldier gunned down in front of an army recruiting station because he choose to defend his country so we could have these freedoms.
ReplyDeleteI have been to Tienanmen Square. Who would have thunk? I have been to their free /unfree government church and met with house church folks. It is a wonder that I am not languishing in a China prison. In Chengdu, where the big earthquake was, I was taking a picture of what I thought was a Buddhist praying and it was a beggar and looked up to see this big guy coming toward me to stop it. She was a beggar. They don't want people to know that they have beggars. Then after the fact, I realized that we probably had someone tailing our group every where we went. But I loved China.