The June Fourth Incident

June 4th, 1989 a ten year old boy is sitting in a hospital bed in Biloxi Mississippi reading a Ninja Turtle comic book. Above him, the new was droning on about China, and college students, and democracy. From what I could tell, a bunch of Chinese people were holding banners and flags and a bunch of other people who looked like police were standing nearby. Suddenly, my mother cries out "Oh my God!"

When I looked up I saw something I had never seen before. The police had started roughing up the media crews, then, moments later, opened fire on a bunch of college students. As a BBC reporter stated, soldiers fired into the unarmed crowd as if they were going into battle, and it was a battle, a one sided one as the troops violently suppressed the protests with field grade ammunition, armored personnel carriers, and tanks. They spared no one, old, young, even shooting people in their homes. Refusing ambulances into the square which they had been ordered to "clear by dawn".

As a kid in America, I had no way to process what I had seen.

On June 5th (the day after the protests) I saw something else I had never seen before. As a column of tanks was moving out of the square, a lone man approached the line, stopping them in their tracks. At first, the tank attempted to move around the man, but he moved with the tank. Then, again. We were all sure that he was going to die. To the PLA, human life has no value. Finally, the man actually scaled the tank, as if provoking the soldiers to kill him, and said something to the driver, then got off. Moments later, two men; likely secret police, maybe students took him away, perhaps to his death although some say that he still lives in hiding. Perhaps we will know the truth someday.

Regardless of where he is now, what he did has left an indelible impression on me. Whenever I think of courage, I think of the Tank Man. I also realize that I am blessed as can be to live here in America; flaws and all, where I can speak out against injustice without fear of reprisal. I hope that you and I can stop for a moment and thank God for the right to speak out.

Today NPR reported this morning that Blogs, Twitter, etc in China are being locked down to prevent a repeat of what is referred to in Chinese textbooks as the "June 4th, Incindent"

Well, I hope that there is a June 4th, 2009 Incident. A massive, glorious movement in the name of democracy and freedom.

And I hope that Tank Man shows up, and that the driver of that tank is right there in the front row with him.

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By the way, if you want to blow your mind, watch Tank Man, a fantastic documentary on the protest.