17 years ago today...

...I witnessed one of the most incredible sights I've ever beheld, one of the most moving images of the Twentieth Century.

Chinese citizens protested for weeks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The forces of the government were eventually mobilized to quell the growing insurrection of thousands.

As the globe looked on, one man in a white shirt with a flag in his hand defiantly stood before a column of tanks rumbling through the streets, suppressing his fear and halting their progress at the same time. It was a glimpse of the power of the human spirit and its urge for self-determination and liberty.

That unknown man was assuredly hunted down and killed in the bloody aftermath, but the inspiration he gave a world will live on in the hearts of those who saw it.

Never forget Tiananmen Square and those who died there.

And never forget George H. W. Bush's response...

If a Democrat had been president at that time and responded to the massacre the same way HW did, we would have heard the old tired shibboleths about how the Democrats are "soft on Communism"; "Democrats won't stand up to the Reds"; "Democrats don't think the Commies are evil". Yet a Republican can get away with these things when dealing with Communist states because, well, they're Republicans. Nobody conceptualizes Republicans as being soft on Communism.

You can kill all the student protesters in the world...so long as I have access to your cheap labor and your forced labor camps in the interior to make my goods.

Gotta love capitalism.

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall - think of it, always."

-- Mahatma Gandhi