The June Fourth Incident

The year was 1989.   The world is rapidly moving toward a more global perspective, with Western-backed capitalism and democracy forging a path into the new millennium.  For the most part, the world is relatively peaceful, with the memories of past major conflicts just words in history books.

Even today, many people don’t fully appreciate what happened that June day in the heart of Beijing, and why it matters today.  If you want the full history of what happened, read up on the facts, either online or in print.  While opinions vary (and all have biases one way or another), one thing can be agreed on regardless:  those Chinese students and civilians possessed a certain quality that I find lacking in modern society, especially the current American.

Courage

Sheer, unwavering courage.

The kind of courage that I see in the current Turkish rioters.  The kind of courage that says, “I’ve had enough of being told what to do by a government I don’t believe in and that doesn’t care about me”.  The sort of courage that will stand in the middle of a city square, alone, against the might of your own nation’s military and dare them to take the first shot.  It’s rare to find anything like that anymore.  As a society that has become so warped in its sense of what is right and what is wrong, it’s not surprising that we fail to realize that it’s undermined our entire core philosophy.  From politics and government, to religion and society, the adage rings true of “man’s reach exceeds his grasp”

We go on these mass crusades of “Save the whales!”, “Protect the trees!”, and “Feed the starving orphan children in Ethiopia” and don’t realize the foundation that we use to launch these projects of goodwill is crumbling underneath us.  I don’t recall ever seeing our students protesting government in the city streets , or raising money to help starving kids here in the States.  All sense of patriotism is quickly fading away, and it scares me.  I recently went to a Texas Rangers baseball game, and was somewhat saddened by the amount of people who stood to their feet, removed their caps, and placed their arms over their hearts during the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner.  I’m only 22, but I was raised by parents who were patriotic and honoring of what this American tradition represents, and I feel somewhat ashamed that my generation has lost all sense of taking pride in being an American.

I suppose it can be difficult to be proud of something that you feel doesn’t represent you, or that speaks on your behalf to a world that hates you for what it stands for.  But in the same way that a specific church doesn’t speak for all of Christianity at large or a single employee doesn’t represent a company as a whole, we shouldn’t let a government that we don’t believe in influence the world on our behalf.  Our founders left an example of what should be done when any government imposes its will against that of its citizens:

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”*

We are charged with doing whatever we believe to be the best course of action to protect ourselves, and those coming after us.  And yet, we continue to vote in those whose only interest is in advancing their own ends, not that of a nation at large.  So we sit back, and watch as our freedoms and democracy die in the thunderous applause of political rallies preaching empty promises and ridiculously unrealistic futures.  What are we missing?  What is one of the key cornerstones to the foundations which our fathers and grandfathers bled for and died to build?

Courage.

Courage to stand against tyranny.

Courage to stand for your convictions and your rights.

Courage to defend your interests, wherever they reside.

That’s what those Chinese students stood for when they took to Tiananmen Square twenty-four years ago.  And I marvel at their attempt, when you realize the odds against them and the drastic consequences facing those that participated when it all ended.  Though they failed in their efforts to change their leadership, they’ve inspired others, both in their own country and abroad (myself included).  Regardless of nationality, but especially if you’re an American, we need to begin looking forward over the horizon of our short lifetimes.  There are generations yet unborn who are coming after us, and what will we have to leave behind for them?  What will be written in our history books when they look at the dawn of the twenty-first century?  Will they see the decline of civilization as in past times, or will they see a generation that took responsibility for its actions and advanced the world?

It’s not enough to simply vote anymore.  Posting political memes on Facebook and Twitter will change nothing.  It takes a heart inspired to courage by a sense of genuine patriotism to stand against the armored tanks of the establishment.  But, rest assured that when a people become so moved, they might be outgunned but they will never be out-manned. -GR

*From the United State Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4th, 1776.