Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Protest Like You Mean It


During my junior year of high school we saw what I considered to be the bravest man I'd seen in my first 17 years. The "Unknown Rebel" stood in front of a tank column in Beijing a day after the Chinese government squashed the pro-Democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. Thousands of the activists were killed.

The young, mostly students, were beyond impressive, with sincerity behind their convictions. They weren't about growing their hair long, dropping acid and hitting a 3 foot bong. They were about creating change. It's too bad a repressive government always seems to defeat noble intentions. And sadly, China was rewarded with the Summer Olympics less than 20 years after their government killed off their finest citizens.

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