The palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise (remembering June 4, 1989).

The Priestly Pugilist ^ | June 5, 2009 | Priestly Pugilist

[Balt]

"Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now...." (Barak Obama).

"Society in every state is a blessing; but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise" (Thomas Pain).

Knowing that June 4th was approaching, your PP knew he wanted to post something about this significant anniversary; but, it's an emotional commemoration for me due to the fact that I have personal acquaintance with a number of people directly or indirectly associated with the event. Regarding that latter point, I won't go into detail since maintaining the mirage of anonymity, lame and futile as it may be, continues to provide your PP with at least a fiction of plausible deniability. Suffice it to say, your PP is a true cosmopolitan, with personal ties much farther East than being a priest of an Eastern Catholic Church would suggest.

During the time of the Beijing Olympics, when President Obama said he wanted the United States to emulate China, there may have been a smattering of gasps from some thinking people, but not nearly the public outcry there should have been. For most Americans, I fear that things like June 4th, and China's "one child" policy, are concepts they're unable to process mentally. After all, when American liberals latch on to fictions like over-population and global warming, meeting someone who left family and home and everything familiar to come here because she didn't want her baby aborted would be an event not easily processed.

We Christians, of course, claim that family is important to us; but with the large percentage of Catholic married couples practicing artificial contraception, maybe meeing people who left their country for the right to have children—and the stories of those who died for it—might be instructive. Rather that pontificate further, I'll just get on with it.

The following picture is probably the only image most Americans have of June 4th, 1989. China's state-run media didn't allow much else after this to come out...;

...but, because the whim of chance threw your PP into personal friendship with people who were there, I have access to other images, some of which may be around on the internet, but most of which you'll not find anywhere. Some of these images are quite graphic. In selecting which of the many images provided to me, I decided to choose a few which seemed to me the most personal. If you are able, try to keep in mind that most of the people you're looking at are dead. Rather than just throw them up, I've included an AsiaNews story by Gianni Criveller about an interview with the former Archbishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Cardinal Zen:

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — “It is truly sad that 20 years have passed [since the Tiananmen massacre] and the tragedy still hasn’t been recognised by the government as an error and a crime.... Deng himself took full responsibility when in the days immediately after the massacre he went personally to congratulate the soldiers. He gave the order. But now Deng is long dead: is it really possible that years on justice still has not been served for fear of a person who died years ago?”.

Card. Joseph Zen, Archbishop emeritus of Hong Kong, champion of democracy and religious freedom, expresses in these terms his displeasure and wonder at the Chinese government’s refusal to admit the error of Tiananmen. In an interview with AsiaNews—which will be published in full in coming days—he affirms that at the origins of this “rejection” is the Chinese dictatorial system, a system that it is time to change. “[The Chinese] system depends on one person. That person has been forward looking and intelligent on certain issues, but that person could not stand democracy, as he considered himself an emperor. Recently someone said: but how can we rehabilitate that movement [Tiananmen]? We would have to blame Deng Xiaoping! But that is impossible! So I ask: and why can we not blame Deng Xiaoping? He did something enormous. Mao was blamed for the cultural revolution, so why shouldn’t we blame Deng too? We must, absolutely, change this dictatorial, imperial system, which is the root cause of this vast tragedy”.

The prelate—who twenty years ago was a simple priest—recalls the participation of the people of Hong Kong in the Tiananmen movement and their pain for the massacre. “That year [1989] gave birth to a new awareness and sensitivity among the people of Hong Kong: we are Chinese, we are part of this great nation. Up until that point we believed we were only people from Hong Kong. But on that occasion we all felt truly Chinese”. “At the time I was the religious director of the Salesian school of Aberdeen, superior of the community and school supervisor. Because the events took place on a Sunday, the following Monday, when we all gathered in the school, we spoke with tears in our eyes, because we felt Chinese and we shared in the emotions and fate of those young people who had the courage to come out and ask for a reform of their homeland. I remember in the aftermath of the massacre I made two speeches, and then we held a commemorative service for those heroes who died on that square and in the surrounding streets”.

“In particular I remember the day of the great march when a million citizens here in Hong Kong took to the streets in prayer and song. It was a truly unique experience, something I will remember for the rest of my life”. From ‘89 on, every year in Hong Kong on June 4th, a great vigil is held to recall the dead of Tiananmen. Held in Victoria Park, thousands gather together. As bishop of Hong Kong, card. Zen always took part in the prayer vigil that preceded the gathering. “I remember a few years ago, during one of the prayer vigils I was asked if I would return the following year and I replied: next year I hope we will be here to celebrate a victory that is the recognition of the martyrs of Tiananmen as patriotic heroes and the government’s admission of its error in suppressing them”.

“It is truly a sad thing that 20 years have gone by and the government still refuses to recognise its mistake and its great crime. But [for us], after 20 years nothing has changed, we still feel the profound ache of the loss of that youthful passion that was tragically wasted”.

In recent days the Chief of the Hong Kong Executive, Donald Tsang, stated that the Tiananmen massacre had to be “left to history” and be forgotten, and he asked the people of Hong Kong to instead appreciate the “excellent economic results” achieved by Hong Kong and China in the aftermath of the massacre. Card. Zen replies: “That comment is not of his own making, it is simply official policy: by repressing that movement stability was gained and from it prosperity. But that is nonsense, pure nonsense. No-one can prove that stability grew from the repression of that movement, and in any case, success and prosperity can never, ever, justify such a terrible use of violence”.

    

    

[ In the aftermath of June 4th, the Red Army executed many of those who survived. Click here for a more graphic view of the above. ]

So, how far are we willing to go to fight for our freedom in the face of one man when, in the words of Cardinal Zen, "That person has been forward looking and intelligent on certain issues, but that person could not stand democracy, as he considered himself an emperor"? The young people slaughtered on June 4th, 1989, and those executed afterward, where never charged with treason; they were acused of attempting to deny to their fellow citizens the health care, economic prosperity and equality that the government provides. It should make us wonder: how many Americans regard Thomas Pain's words, "Give me liberty or give me death", as the words of a patriot, or the words of an extremist, right-wing kook?

[Balt]

I messed up the link directly under the next to last photograph; but, if you view this post on Priestly Pugilist, the same link will work. This was not intentional.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> I messed up the link directly under the next to last photograph; but, if you view this post on Priestly Pugilist, the same link will work. This was not intentional.

Not for the feint-hearted. ‘Strewth!