Friday, August 11, 2017

The lessons of Tiananmen Square

Cousin Bruce Miller recently shared a story that we think is worth including on Miller Archives.  He referred to a speech given by a former Chinese student activist about events that he had experienced at Beijing's Tiananmen Square some 28 years ago.  We hasten to add that cousin Bruce was working in China when the popular nationalist protest occurred, forcibly suppressed by Chinese troops after the government invoked martial law.  Bruce began his piece with a refresher about that fateful event.

Bruce Miller
Dear Folks:

...Should memory not serve you, that bloodletting in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on the nights of June 3rd and 4th, 1989, was precipitated when a malevolent and evil totalitarian one-party government murdered hundreds – perhaps thousands – of its own innocent citizens who were petitioning for nothing more than the right to assemble, speak openly, and campaign for the establishment of basic freedoms and equalities that we Americans have long taken for granted.  That malevolent one-party state still ruthlessly rules the destiny of the Chinese people today.

I was in Shanghai, China that Sunday morning of June 4th, 1989, on a university campus where I had been teaching English for nearly two years.  How vividly I recall speaking with several of my students on the central plaza of the university that morning as the sun rose and awareness of the massacre on Tiananmen Square was taking hold.  One middle-aged professor who had been my English student, with tears streaming own his face, told me "Mr. Miller, what can we do?  The government's police and army have all the weapons, what can we do?!"

And that, in summary folks, is the strongest argument that I can propose to resist until our last breath the efforts of those in positions of power and authority in our statehouses, our federal governemtn, our colleges and universities, and sadly, even many of our churehes and religious institutions, to take away our right to freely keep and bear arms!

We have a national administration and President in place today that strongly acknowledges our 2nd amendment rights enshrined in the Constitution, but the time may well come, and likely will, when "liberal" leftist politicians will again gain ascendency and undertake once more their efforts to disarm our citizenry.

Look around, folks, even in our "democratic" world, citizens have been effectively disarmed and accepted the lie of big government that "we'll protect you – society is better and safter if only have arms!"  (It's a given that the first thing totalitarian governments always take away is the right to bear arms.)

In summary, remember, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction!

Regards,

Bruce