NPR coverage over the last few days has been bouncing back and forth between the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and Obama's Egypt speech. They featured an interview with a Chinese student. She said she'd read something about soldiers firing on civilians in one book, but didn't really believe it, since other than that there hadn't been any mention of shootings. Sometimes information passes so quickly, and sometimes surprisingly slowly... They also interviewed a history teacher in China, who said he could safely teach about the crackdown, but didn't because there wasn't enough time.

It all reminded me of my grade-school US history classes, which stopped after the 50s, conveniently before the Vietnam war kicked into high gear. We did get some Vietnam coverage in high school, but not much discussion of the protests, e.g. the Kent State shootings. Maybe not on the same scale as the Tiananmen crackdown, but still, the rose-colored history glasses are not unique to China. Not that that makes them acceptable, it's just a sign of how much people dislike rocking the boat. After all, I would certainly rank more Vietnam-at-home coverage above the War of Jenkins' Ear coverage we got in the high school course.

Anyhow, here's a bow to people taking nonviolent stands for what they believe in.