Importing NanoBlogger post "Tiananmen anniversary"

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+[[!meta  title="Tiananmen anniversary"]]
+[[!meta  date="2009-06-04 13:20:12"]]
+
+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.