So here I go...I know I haven't posted in a long-ass time, and who really cares? I don't believe that this blog means anything and I doubt even my most ardent followers are still around.
But, I have something to say. Today is the twentieth anniversary of the Chinese government massacre of the pro-democracy student-demonstrators in Tienamen Square.
This post is meant as a memorial, however small, for the students and sympathizers who gave their lives that day. June 4th 1989. I remember watching the news, the news with Dan Rather and the MacNiel/Leherer news hour. I didn't quite understand what was happening because I grew up in a quiet American suburb. But I do remember seeing my dad's face and understanding that this demonstration was an important thing. My dad had been watching China since he was a child and this was a chance for that country to become one of the first to throw off the shackles of Communist oppression. We all watched day after day. I, in my nine-year-old naivete thought that the students would win. How could they not? They had liberty personified on their side. I guess my nine-year-old self had no idea of the power of state sanctioned violence.
This was the end of the Cold War but none of us knew it. I grew up in the era of Star Wars (SDI). None of us understood that the Berlin Wall would soon crumble. Europe would be fine. But what of China?
Nowadays the youth of that country apparently know little to nothing of the students' struggle and sacrifice. Their mother country now owns our debt and even we, the apparent vanguard of liberty, cant talk about it for fear of the collectors coming for theirs.
I hate to say it, but those thousands of students who heroically sacrificed died for nothing.
God bless global capital.
May we all remember the sacrifice of those heroic souls.
