"I think never killed."

We saw it, well, forever ago in Tiananmen Square. A spontaneous groundswell, a great yearning for freedom. Sometimes Asians yearn to be free.

And why not? There is such a thing in the world. We have it. We are an example. A beacon.

It is our heritage.


We are an inspiration.


It's almost 35 years ago now, so I can talk about it. Because words have meaning, and actions have consequences. Because sometimes things don't go according to plan. Sometimes life seems more important than liberty.

Hm. Why are these young men hiding from those soldiers?

A student. In the process of being beaten to death.

A grad student.

It has the rough beauty of skewed symmetry.

When the tanks start rolling.

This is a human body.

This is grief. And courage.

Between 200 and 10,000 killed. Sort of a big margin of error, but it wasn't quite yet the internet age. Well, no matter. If there's one thing the world has plenty of, it's chinamen. If they don't value their own people, why should we.

Maybe I'm young, but I'm sorta sick of all the meaningless governmental protests. We are aware of the situation.... We are concerned.... We are monitoring events.... We are busy sterilizing tranz children....

So we have the talkers.

Then we have this young man. This man.



We've seen what tank treads can do.


Let's look at him.
What's that in his hand? A clarinet case?


And this, in his right hand --
--his shopping? No, a jacket.


Let's study him. Because it's not so often that we get to see a hero. Maybe we'll learn something.


Ah. That's what heroes do. Know what he's saying? "Go away. My city is in chaos because of you. Stop killing my people."

Some claim his name is or was Wang Weilin, a student, age 19. Some reports have him as shot within weeks of this event. Some have him hiding in China or Taiwan. When asked of his fate by Barbara Walters in 1990, Jiang Zemin, CCP General Secretary -- that's like what Stalin was -- said, "I think never killed."

Anonymity swallows him like death.

Before the tanks really started to roll, the art students built a 30-foot plaster statue. The Goddess of Democracy.
She needs both hands to carry the torch. Liberty doesn't start out strong.


Those poor naive children. It was ground to rubble by the tanks.

If I had the computer and graphic skills, I would put this picture in the banner of, now, Ultra Mega.  But I have only words. Like the rest of the world.

Burma and Aleppo and Armenia and Kiev and poor Tibet.  Who can be bothered to remember. 

The specifics always grow dated.   What the hell ever happened to Burma?  We're not hearing so much about congressmen wanting to date pageboys.  There's always some hot sexy scandal about porn stars and trannies.  Ah well.  Every day provides diversions and inspiration enough, for those who would profit and be distracted by it.  Or we could quibble about trivialities.  Whatever.

J

President Phido

 Who says spy balloon?  Why does it always have to be balloons? -- let alone spy balloons -- not to say Chinese spy balloons.  

Why not kites?

Box kites?

Chinese box kites

...Butt Biden loves the Chinese, though.  So Japanese kites?

Maybe a paper airplane contest

or a migration of monarch butterflies

or a flock of seagulls

or Jonathan Livingston Seagull

or a stork

or Socrates in a basket

or not-a-friend of Dorothy

or a game of quidditch

or a flying city

or a floating island

or a little planet

or Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It could be so many things:

 

In memoriam, 9/5/40 - 2/15/23

But surely it could not be an utterly incompetent administration overreacting to and overcompensating for its cowardice and indecision and conflicted self-interests and bewilderment as to where its sworn duty lies.

I used to have a dog that would bark at its own farts. Now we all have that dog.  

Phido barks at farts! 

Phido seen [a] BJ!

J