Speak Up

The flag above you belongs to a people who have been and are continuing to be exterminated, demoralized and crushed by a cruel Chinese dictatorship. I am not going to launch into a full on history of the Tibetan peoples struggle to hold onto their land, their culture and their religious freedom. You can read about it on Wikipedia if you like.

This post is about media and the overwhelming influence it has in shaping the perspectives of those watching, reading or listening to the stories they are “reporting”. I am voicing a direct rebuke against the government of the United States in their lame duck response to Chinas latest wave of violence against the peaceable protests by Tibetans in Lhasa.

Thus far the American government has responded to the latest siege of Lhasa with only this response, “The United States told China on Friday to act with restraint when dealing with protesters in Tibet”.

Act with restraint?! What kind of a rebuke is that? Why not send out a response stating that our hearts go out to the millions of Tibetans who have lived through the hell of foreign occupation for the last 60 years? A demand for the Chinese government to get the hell out of Lhasa and Tibet altogether? A plea for the American public to take to the streets in a show of solidarity against the inhumane and deplorable treatment of fellow human beings?

Why do I even hint at asking these kinds of questions from a government such as the one I live beneath? Because it is what should be done. Because, as Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

And in other news I'm gonna call out Senator McCain for his latest fear driven statement. A statement that reveals the direction he would surely take the already beaten and weary American public if he were elected into presidency. It goes like this, “John McCain said on Friday he fears that anti-American extremists might attempt spectacular attacks in Iraq to try to tilt the U.S. election against him.”

That’s just what America needs, one more thing that we should supposedly fear. One more reason for us to pull away from the rest of the world and turn insular. Thanks McCain because that’s the kind of leadership we need. Leadership that leads not by truth and honesty but by tactics rooted in fear and speculation. Coward. I’ll call you out.

Forget this mediacrocy. Create your own. A D.I.Y. independent media network. Say what needs to be said. Say it from the heart. Speak the truth. Have conversations with those around you. Talk to your family, your friends, your neighbors.

This silence is killing us.