Tank Man

Terrorism and repression won at Tiananmen Square some 18 years ago. The protests died under the hardliners' heavy hands, guns and men. But this unknown gentleman stopped a tank with his force of will, and thus showed the world that there is something inside that had not died in the horror of it all. He showed that freedom is a primal thing, a hunger, and all consuming desire. He had seen, or at least knew what the government had done to its people, massacring thousands of innocents in the streets, and he was angry. The gesture was simple, he wasn't going to let these tanks pass, not living anyway. He wanted the repression to stop, and it didn't matter that he was alone. What lived inside him, a primal desire to see repression end and freedom begin, touched the world. It was reported that protesters throughout the Soviet Bloc drew great inspiration from his gesture, feeling that if he could face down 4 tanks, why couldn't they face down 1. His act of courage did not ignite a similar revolution in China, but what it showed is that the hardliners will never win because they can't kill the desire for freedom that exists deep inside us all.