July 29, 2010
by Paul Stanner
The Cracker News Broadcasting Corp. — The OTHER C.N.B.C. is now proud to present a commentary by Mr. Paul Stanner.
In the Spring of 1989 there were one million people that were upset about certain issues in their country such as the lack of freedom and Democracy , repression , brutality , and no representation in their government that took to the streets of Beijing in a civil disobedience protest. As many of you are aware their government was not pleased with these protesters but because the world was watching they could do nothing. This protest dragged on for six weeks with the Democracy activists embarrassing their government on the world stage daily until finally the government acted and so did one SOLITARY courageous unarmed citizen. The government did what all repressive governments , including our current one if we let them , will always do in these circumstances — they called in the troops. That one SOLITARY courageous unarmed citizen also acted at that point. He stepped in front of a tank and stopped it dead in it’s tracks for all the world to see. Now as you all know nothing happened to that young an at the time but the moment the world’s attention was diverted to other issues the Chinese government acted against their Democracy activists. There was Hell to pay for these folks and still is to this very day.
My question to you today readers is this : ” Where is the ” tank man ” of Arizona? ” If us American citizens do not have the courage to act as this young man did and put our government and fellow Americans in the military to the test then we WILL get exactly what we deserve. We need to act NOW !! We need to keep the camera and camcorders perpetually on to document the activities of this government. If we refuse to employ these tactics in this War of Ideas and just sit in the comfort of our homes and whine , bitch , piss , moan , complain and blame everybody else for all of our national problems then we no longer deserve the Republic that was bestowed to us.
I’ll ask once again where is the ” tank man ” of Arizona ? Are the citizens of The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to be upstaged by the CHINESE ???
On June 5, 1989, anonymous and alone, one man stepped into the path of a Chinese military tank. As thousands looked on, he held his ground, waving his arms, his body dwarfed by the sheer size of the tank whose path he obstructed.
He couldn’t have known it then, but his singular gesture would resonate around the world. It is, perhaps, the most famous moment of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. To the Chinese government, it was a slap in the face, a gesture of defiance and insubordination. To those in Tiananmen Square that day, it was a symbol of one man’s power to change the status quo.
Though few will forget the famous image of the unnamed man, the lesser-known details—a seven-day hunger strike, the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev—are of particular interest. Here, some facts you might not have known about the infamous Tiananmen Square incidents.
Protesters Created Their Own Media and Met at KFC
As numbers grew, protesters began circulating their own daily newspaper and erected a broadcasting tent. Many conducted meetings and shared ideas in the southwest corner of the Square at the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Mikhail Gorbachev Was Turned Away
Scheduled to arrive in Tiananmen Square to formally settle years of hostility between China and Russia, Gorbachev instead arrived to find his welcoming ceremony canceled due to the protests. The Chinese government’s “loss of face” over this incident was perhaps cause for its next course of action—calling in the troops.
A “Goddess of Democracy” Was Erected
In a visual representation of their demands, protesters created a “Goddess of Democracy,” a 10-meter-tall foam and papier-mâché replica of the U.S.’ own Statue of Liberty. It was made enormous for a reason: protesters knew that the government would have to either tolerate it, or destroy it and risk further scrutiny.
3,000 Refused to Eat
When student body demands fell on deaf ears (namely those of Premier Li Peng) hundreds of students took drastic measures, declaring an indefinite hunger strike. Their numbers swelled, totaling 3,000 hunger strikers. The strike hit an especially sore spot in a country that strives for privacy: it was a very public, very ubiquitous form of protest.
The Unnamed ‘Tank Man’ Climbed the Tank
The anonymous man who stood before the tank also actually climbed onto the tank, all the way to the top, to communicate with the driver. Various translations of what was said have emerged, from “Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you” to “Go back, turn around, and stop killing my people.”
There Was No ‘One’ Cause
Though a similar thread of discontent wove through the demands of all protesters, there was no “one” cause. Initially, in fact, the protest began as a response to the death of Hu Yaobang, whom protesters were mourning. But within weeks, it would erupt into something much bigger. The square—once the site of Mao Zedong’s proclamation of the People’s Republic of China—was transformed for six weeks into a city within a city, 1 million strong in the weeks leading up to June 4th. There was no official spokesperson. There were many agendas. Students, teachers, and workers were united by their determination, if not by the same goal. They were there to demand more: more freedom, more democracy, more rights.
CNBC {Cracker Nation Broadcasting Corp} 
