{"id":2082,"date":"2012-06-06T15:50:25","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T23:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/private-person.com\/blog\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2012-06-05T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T00:23:21","slug":"if-they-can-do-it-can-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/private-person.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/if-they-can-do-it-can-you\/","title":{"rendered":"If they can do it, can you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I often wonder if standing up for one’s rights is the smart thing to do. Why risk and suffer for what is right when most people could not care less and a will gladly watch you suffer for your efforts to bring justice and freedom to everyone (glad its not them, or glad you’re not getting away with something).<\/p>\n

The masses have cheered and jeered as heros and the righteous have been burned at the stake, hung, tortured and worse, once the “powers that be” catch them. It is a tragic tale of hope and change being brutally beaten down again and again. Oppression is alive and well, still, everywhere,<\/p>\n

But somehow freedom remains a powerful idea that SOME people ascribe to and are willing to risk all to move slowly forward in history’s march.<\/p>\n

At one time slavery was “legal” therefore “morally” OK for “businessmen” to profit from. Since\u00a0slavery became illegal it has morphed into something more subtle and insidious.<\/p>\n

Yet many people the world over are now standing up and speaking out..louder and louder. Often its the students who are the ones who stand up first. Police, military and political oppression be damned. In western countries its safer…. but getting less so. Canada and the USA governments have a history too littered with violence against unarmed, peaceful protestors to claim that freedom and “democracy” truly exist here.<\/p>\n

Some of the stories of people standing in the face of violence and government sanctioned retribution are shocking and still happening TODAY.<\/p>\n

June 4, 1989, 20 Years after Tiananmen, who Tank-man is is still mystery but the image of one man standing against the tanks is still powerful. Do you remember that it was over 1 million Chinese mostly students protesting against the communist rule and demanding more democracy?<\/p>\n

Wasn’t it students in Libya and….and….and….?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tank_Man<\/a>
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