Slate pictorial

[MikeWaters]

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20070619/

This first photo is of a brother finding his sister dead in the back of a truck (picked up by the body collectors) after US helicopter fire.



I always found this photo inspiring. I can almost hear him saying, "Torture is wrong."

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20070619/

This first photo is of a brother finding his sister dead in the back of a truck (picked up by the body collectors) after US helicopter fire.



I always found this photo inspiring. I can almost hear him saying, "Torture is wrong."

Both fotos are inspiring, but your editorialization is not. It cheapens the fotos.

The boy would not be complaining about torture but death.

[MikeWaters]

The guy in front of the tank stands against a totalitarian regime. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is not comfortable with state-sponsored torture.

But you're right, maybe he does support it. Or is indifferent.

[MikeWaters]

There are two aspects to the tank pic. The man willing to stand in front. And the man not willing to run him over.

We forget about the latter.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

The guy in front of the tank stands against a totalitarian regime. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is not comfortable with state-sponsored torture.

But you're right, maybe he does support it. Or is indifferent.

Our words cheapen their efforts, that is all. When the foto speaks, we need not add, as Lincoln wrote: "in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

My point it is cheap to make a political statement by somebody who boldly makes his own statement. To ride coattails of somebody in true anguish or truly heroic is ivory tower syndromatic.

I thought I read about the man standing down the tank as having been murdered. Originally nobody knew his name.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

There are two aspects to the tank pic. The man willing to stand in front. And the man not willing to run him over.

We forget about the latter.

The reason for this, the tanks who were not willing to kill were from around Beijing, but then the army brought in the peasant army folk to kill the city folk.

[MikeWaters]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Rebel

I am too insignificant to possibly cheapen the photograph.

[Archaea]

Note confusion remains about the fate of this man.

There are several conflicting stories about what happened to him after the demonstration. In a speech to the President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy special assistant to President of the United States Richard Nixon — reported that he was executed 14 days later; other sources say he was killed by firing squad a few months after the Tiananmen Square protests. In Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that the man is still alive and is hiding in mainland China.
An eyewitness account of the event published in October 2005 by Charlie Cole, a contract photographer for Newsweek magazine at the time, states that the man was arrested on the spot by the Public Security Bureau.
The People's Republic of China government made few statements about the incident or the person involved. In a 1990 interview with Barbara Walters, then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin was asked what became of the man. Jiang replied "I think never killed."[1]
A June 2006 article in the Hong Kong Apple Daily stated that the man is now residing in Taiwan.[2]

[BigFatMeanie]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Note confusion remains about the fate of this man.

There are several conflicting stories about what happened to him after the demonstration. In a speech to the President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy special assistant to President of the United States Richard Nixon — reported that he was executed 14 days later; other sources say he was killed by firing squad a few months after the Tiananmen Square protests. In Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that the man is still alive and is hiding in mainland China.
An eyewitness account of the event published in October 2005 by Charlie Cole, a contract photographer for Newsweek magazine at the time, states that the man was arrested on the spot by the Public Security Bureau.
The People's Republic of China government made few statements about the incident or the person involved. In a 1990 interview with Barbara Walters, then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin was asked what became of the man. Jiang replied "I think never killed."[1]
A June 2006 article in the Hong Kong Apple Daily stated that the man is now residing in Taiwan.[2]

After hearing stories about the Public Security Bureau from OldManMeanie, I give the "arrested on the spot" story the most credibility.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by BigFatMeanie

After hearing stories about the Public Security Bureau from OldManMeanie, I give the "arrested on the spot" story the most credibility.

Given my travels inside China, I guess he was arrested and executed. China has no qualms about executions. There are no living heroes in China, only martyrs.