A View From the Deck: Remember 'Tank Man'

NOTE: The following is OPINION. As such, it is the author's point of view and his alone.

Not long ago I found myself having a conversation with a man that had read one of my previous posts here on Patch. And while he didn’t agree with what I had to say, as is his Right, he complemented me on not being afraid to speak my mind. He also asked me where I acquired the motivation to speak out on subjects, knowing that I could expect heavy criticism for doing so.

So I told him.

Hanging on the wall at my desk, right above my monitor, is my daily source of inspiration. It’s a grainy color photograph showing a man standing before a Chinese Type 59 Heavy Battle Tank.

This photograph, regarded by many as one of the most iconic of the 20th Century, represents the single greatest act of selfless defiance against tyranny and oppression in many of our lifetimes.

The date was June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese government's violent crackdown on student protests that resulted in a massacre that has yet to be equaled.

The place was Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Nobody really knows the identity of that young man standing boldly in the street, blocking the advance of the column of tanks with his body and nothing more. But his actions that day have become the embodiment of standing strong and resolute for one’s Rights.

He is known as ‘Tank Man.’

In an act that reads right out of Orwell’s ‘1984,’ all references to the massacre at Tiananmen Square and Tank Man have been removed from Chinese media and history. Chinese students that were shown the image a few years ago were confused as to its meaning, some actually stating that it was ‘Modern art.’

But what about here in the United States? Do we have anyone that embodies that spirit of resolute defiance in the face of overwhelming odds? Is there anyone out there that is willing to stand strong and uphold our Rights and Freedoms in the same way as Tank Man?

Some will point out various public and historical figures, such as Patrick Henry or others of that time period, when America was fighting to throw off the yoke of English tyranny and oppression.

Others will mention certain elected officials that are elected to represent our voices in both State and Federal government that have spoken out on issues contrived to infringe upon our Rights and Freedoms.

But Tank Man was none of these. He was not an historic or public figure. He was not an elected representative of anyone. He was a common man, standing up for his Rights, and by doing so, standing up for the Rights of all of his countrymen.

We need a Tank Man here like never before.

It is well and good that we have those elected officials. It is good that we, by proxy, have a voice in the legislature.

But sometimes more is needed. Sometimes, it takes one of our own, one who is not a public official, to spur us on to speak out and stand up for the Rights, Freedoms, and Beliefs that we each have.

Rosa Parks was one. She stood up to injustice, and in doing so truly began the Civil Rights Movement here in the United States.

Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka ‘Joe the Plumber,’ was another. He called into question then-candidate Obama’s ideology of ‘Spreading the wealth,’ and suggested that Obama's tax plan would be at odds with the American way of life.

But where are people like Rosa Parks, Joe the Plumber, or Tank Man here in our community? Our state? Our country?

Look around. It may be a neighbor. It may be the lady that checks you out at the grocery store. It may be the high school kid that comes by to help with yardwork.

It may even be you.

Read these words, taken from our own Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

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.”

Standing up for one’s own Rights and Freedoms is to stand up for the Rights and Freedoms of all Americans, and whenever a Right or Freedom is infringed upon, it is infringed upon for each of us.

In China and elsewhere, Tank Man has been not only forgotten, but erased from existence. But we in the United States still remember common people like Rosa Parks and Joe the Plumber for taking a stance against injustice and tyranny. We remember the criticism they, and others like them, endured for speaking out.

One does not have to stand before a column of tanks to be a voice of dissent against injustice. One only has to state that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Remember Tank Man and what he stood for.