1989. Tiananmen Square. One man stands.
For years, decades, even, the extent of this footage was limited to only 3 seconds where the tanks pulled up to him and nothing more. Over the past month, the footage was shown time and time again, and I was forced to ask this question: What happened to him? Did he get run over? Did the tank stop only to go around him? What, exactly, happened?
After watching this video, its obvious that the mans act of defiance wasn't as simple as it may seem. A man walking home, maybe from work or the store, is walking and after 3 days of riots and protests, hes greeted with 3 tanks. After spending a life where he was oppressed, miserable, pissed-off, he sees this.. and stops the tank. He stands right in the path of this row, this massive line of tanks... and refuses to move.
The tank stops. The man still stands with his bags in hand.
The tank veers to the right to get around... and the man stands in his way. The tank then tries going back, only to see the man again.
Finally, after this back and forth, the tank driver stops and turns off his engine. The man then proceeds to do something amazing: He climbs on top of the tank and goes in! After coming out shortly after that, he then starts to walk away. When he sees the tank moving again, he walks right back in front of it! A man on a bike comes up, talks to him, and he walks away.
What is freedom? What does it mean? To the people in China, as they tasted a world of freedom that we get daily, they were willing to fight and die for it, to sacrifice their lives for it. And one man stood and stared the evil of fascism in the eye.
There is also a wonderful documentary on the subject, which you can see here.
No comments:
Post a Comment