“But leave your ideas about freedom and human rights behind…”
The theme of this year’s Olympics is “One World – One Dream.” If not that each individual be guaranteed basic human rights, what is that dream?
Tomorrow (8/8/08 – 8:08 pm – China time – how clever), the Games begin. But the lies and abuses that have escalated in recent months are not new — they are business as usual for the Chinese Communist government.
In Virginia, if you oppose use of illegitimate use of Government Power to force people out of their homes, you will probably be hailed as a hero — if you are a politician and you do so, you might even find a few corporate interests funding your next opponent. In the PRC, you’ll be in jail on the charge of “stirring up trouble.” God knows redevelopment is so much easier when you can kick the little guy out of the way.
In America, if you publish Government secrets, your subscription rates go up and you are praised for your bravery (New York Times). In China, if you tell the truth about how the government has abused you, you will be dead or in prison so long that you wish you were dead.
… The contrasts can go on and on and on…
I’m grateful to live here. But I’m also saddened when I see human rights taking a back seat to economics in our nation’s public policy. There is little doubt we could do more to promote freedom in China — starting by honoring our commitment to Taiwan.
Who is surprised that the People’s Republic of China – after promising to treat their own people with common decency – has done just the opposite in the days leading up to the Olympic Games?
I’m not surprised – but I am deeply troubled. The Chinese Communists are acting like Chinese Communists — what did we expect?
That the world community would reward them for their dastardly record by allowing them to host the Olympic Games, I did not expect.
That President Bush would pretend that nothing is wrong, would mute official criticisms of the PRC, would attend the games, I did not expect.
That the world would watch the games in awe and blissful ignorance, with nary a thought for the abused dissidents rotting in Chinese prisons, the parents who have lost their jobs because they had a second baby, the dead in Darfur — gunned down by planes purchased with PRC coin, I did not expect.
Just because we avert our eyes from their pain, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Just because the PRC censors the “news” coming out of their country, doesn’t mean there is no truth to be found.
If we do not speak up for the innocent, then we are complicit.
Find out more: Amnesty Reports Escalated Human Rights Violations in Advance of 2008 Olympics; Olympic Watch; Human Rights in China – NGO;
