36 Years Ago

One of the pictures from the Wall Street Journal, which I saved a while ago, moves me to tears. Thirty-six years ago, I was there as a young university professor and had gone through all the difficult hours. Some of the students killed or wounded were my students or familiar to me. One student was killed right in front of me with a bullet through his heart. I nearly got killed for the second time late that night. 

Democracy in China had a brief moment of joyful existence, as shown in the picture, when the communist government negotiated with demonstrating students before deploying tanks and guns. Everything was over. The only hope for democracy in China was the few moments that were extinguished 36 years ago.