Tanks for the Memories

In China the old saying "no news is good news" seems to take on a more ominous tenor. Today is the twenty year anniversary of a widely (back then) covered demonstration in Tiananmen Square in the country's capital city of Beijing. In an under reported statistic, outdone only by the under reporting of Al Gore's interests in green related interests for financial gain, the Chinese Communists stated 241 people died when tanks produced by the people began running down those same people as the government tried to breakup the peaceful assembly. The Red Cross of China reports the number of dead to be more in the 2,600 range. Funny, I've never known a communist to misreport anything. It makes me wonder how accurate CNN/Asia is in their reporting of 150,000 attending a candlelight vigil when the Hong Kong police say it was closer to 63,000.

The vigil, held in the more tolerant and more profitable province of Hong Kong, was the only commemoration of this bloody event on Chinese soil. It wouldn't really have mattered had any been held on the mainland itself. In the days leading up to this anniversary, the Chinese government blocked access to many web sites, search engines and other news outlets. Even Twitter was blocked just in case any pesky free thinking malcontent decided to use his 140 or so characters to speak ill of the Party.

The Huffington Post has a story about the Chinese government pressuring a U.S. news organization and this group of Obama loving (well, odds are they are)reporters canceled an interview with a leader of the Chinese Uighur dissidents, under pressure from Chinese authorities. The left leaning site doesn't say which news outlet it was but, since they didn't name it, you can bet it wasn't Fox News. My money is on CNN or MSNBC. Tiananmen Square itself was placed on lockdown days before this anniversary and film crews were prevented from taking any pictures.

It is about this time in a post where I should begin comparing the freedom sucking proposals and policies of the current administration and bemoaning the fact that we are fast becoming a country that would be unrecognizable to our founding fathers. You can draw those comparisons and conclusions yourself.

My only thought, as I sit here and wonder why I've not seen a single photo or film clip of the brave student who stood his ground and stared down a tank in the middle of the square as the world watched and placed bets as to whether or not the Party faithful driver would back up for a second run after squashing him like a squirrel under the over-sized BF Goodrich's on a government motors Silverado truck is this:

Who among us, in this age of enlightened self-esteem improving education, will be willing to do the same?

S2