Saturday, June 04, 2005

Hero


Ezra reminds us that today is the 16th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The least we can all do is take a moment to remember this photo.

"That", as my grandfather would say, "that is such a man to deserve the name of it."

Posted by Hello

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a hero in that picture, but I don't think it's the person everyone thinks it is. At the time that picture was taken the army had already started shooting. If I remember the timeline correctly, tanks hadn't driven into the crowds yet, but they would.

So when that guy ran in front of the tanks, he was throwing his life away to gain what? An extra few seconds for his friends to run away? I respect that, but not nearly as much as I respect the guy driving that first tank for stopping. It's one thing to make a desperate stand in a desperate situation. It's another to let your humanity take charge when you're the one with the power and you've been trained to use it.

And he didn't have any friends to spirit him away into anonymity either. Can you doubt that he was found and punished? So he's the one I remember when I see that photo.

Anonymous said...

Taking a stand.

I don't think this person was throwing his life away.

How many times do we have a stiring moment in a movie where one person turns back and leads the crowd or the troops back against insurmountable forces?

How hungry are we for figures like this, in a time when we are held spellbound by a person driving away from police in a slow white Ford Bronco.?

Think Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, think The Patriot or even Spartacus.

I don't think the student was trying to let his friends get away, I think he was making sure the tanks didn't get away.

You can't script bravery like that.

Unknown said...

the gentlemen with the bag was also caught and killed.

Unknown said...

the gentlemen with the bag was also caught and killed.

Anonymous said...

Thaddeus wrote:
I don't think this person was throwing his life away. ... How many times do we have a stiring moment in a movie where one person turns back and leads the crowd or the troops back against insurmountable forces?

Oh, I agree that what he (and the guy driving the tank together) did created one of those rare iconic moments, but when he ran in front of the tanks he had no reason to believe it would. He had every reason to think he would be run right over. It was a hopeless desperate measure that, briefly, worked. And it worked because of the decision made by the guy drving the tank.

Unknown said...

Although, if you watch the footage, it's a bit more complicated (not to parse out the actions of better men than ourselves, but...) The tank stops, tries to go around the pedestrian to continue its mission, only to be foiled by the guy moving. The driver then sticks out his head and words are exchanged. That's where the video ends in every version I've been able to find online in a brief search.

I think the driver was more befuddled than anything. He was expecting a crowd, and quite specifically the anonymity of the crowd. The weirdness of one guy is what, I think, threw him. It's worth noting that once this fellow was removed, the tanks did then go on ahead and complete their murderous mission.

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