For those supporting a free Tibet

[thatcrazycajun]

Does this column by syndicated right-wing columnist Charley Reese (printed in today's dead-tree edition of my local paper) get you as hot under the collar as it does me? He derides Americans and others in the West who want Tibet freed from communist China's tyranny as "coffee sippers" who want Tibetans to undertake risks to life and limb that they themselves are not willing to, and that attempting to liberate Tibet is in any case a futile exercise. (And the hell of it is, he goes on to say pretty much the same things about our misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan that Your Humble Correspondent has been saying for years now.)

Maybe it's just that old left knee of mine jerking again, but it occurred to me that his logic could have been—and probably was—used to justify inaction during other periods in history: "The English will never allow their American colonies independence"; "The English will never free India/Rhodesia/Hong Kong from their rule"; or "The Soviet Union will never let go of its client states in Eastern Europe."

But as we all know, all of these things did, in fact, happen...and in the latter cases, without a shot ever being fired. I will not say that anyone in Tibet should stand up to get shot while I sit here safe. But the Chinese government does need to be called to account, publicly and repeatedly, for its mistreatment not only of Tibetans under its rule, but of all the rest of its citizens as well. And the need to keep their abuses frontmost in the global public's mind is especially crucial now, as Beijing attempts to use this summer's Olympic Games to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of the world.

My feeling is that the Games should go on, with all nations participating; Reese is right about that much. The athletes who've worked and sacrificed to get to this point should not be made to suffer needlessly for their governments' political conflicts. (We saw in 1980 and 1984 how little Olympics boycotts tend to accomplish...and how much more harm they do than good.) But protesters should certainly make the most of whatever space and freedom they can manage on site...and others elsewhere should speak up as well. We need to be reminded, all of us, that there is more going on in China than its government would have us know...and not all of it is as pleasant and peaceful as the upcoming pageantry and propaganda will be trying really hard to make it seem.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

He's slightly right, but has it backwards. To the extent that he's calling folks here unwilling to take those risks, he has some truth. After all, we've not moved to oust the worst criminals and most corrosively destructive government ever, for the past seven years -- not even in simple political action, much less armed revolution.

After that, it's all suitable for fertilizing gardens.

[sdelmonte]

Remember the days when, if a Communist oppressed anyone, the right was there to protest, at the very least? I don't miss the Goldwater-Reagan wing of the GOP, but at least I knew that when such things happened, they and I agreed about who was in the wrong, if not what to do.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Reese reminds me of the cynical definition of "bureaucracy" -- a bunch of people who don't know how to do anything, who get together to decide that nothing can be done.