Remembering Tiananmen Square

"With their college IDs as identification and their names out in the open, the students had to take responsibility for what they were doing, and to recognise their own positions of power as representatives of the student body. Under tremendous political pressure, as well as pressure of time and space, the student organisations encountered numerous obstacles in their efforts to learn about and practise procedural democracy. Some students' status was representative in name only, and would not withstand scrutiny. Yet faced with the final decision whether or not to withdraw from Tiananmen Square, the student leaders still relied on a vote to persuade their followers, as well as themselves, of the rightness of their course of action. The internal working of their organisations was always dependent on democratic legitimation."-Chaohua Wang-

In "Diary", Chaohua Wang, editor of One China, Many Paths, writes thoughtfully of an event that continues to haunt not only her, but her country. Wang was a member of the standing committee of the Beijing Autonomous Association of College Students in the spring of 1989, and after 4 June was on the Chinese government's most-wanted list.

As she writes:

"It is now 18 years since soldiers and tanks entered Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Yet every year since then, on the night of 4 June, tens of thousands of people gather in Hong Kong and, whatever the weather, light candles in memory of what happened then, and those who died as a result of it. I don't think any other mass commemoration has lasted so long. But what is remembered so powerfully in Hong Kong cannot even be mentioned on the other side of the border that separates the Special Administrative Region from the rest of the People's Republic of China."

Changing Girls' Lives (One Bill at a Time)

"Every year in poor countries, millions of girls - preteens and teens - become the wives of older men...This custom is not marriage, but rather sanctioned sexual abuse and a human rights violation that destroys girls' lives."
-Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn)-

Rep. McCollum recently introduced new legislation that would authorize $100 million to be utilized over four years to stop child marriages, a practice most prevalent in West Africa and South Asia. Additional bills would require that the State Department include child marriage statistics in annual human rights reports on other countries. Read more here.

Meanwhile, Marie Cocco is wondering what we're doing here to alleviate teen pregnancy. In "Birth Control Is Back," she explains that "the U.S. rate of teen births is still the highest in the industrialized world...according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Nearly a third of American girls and young women will get pregnant at least once before they reach 20."

Makes Me Sick

"Moore is laying out facts. The industries that profit so hugely from our illnesses spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, public relations and lobbying to 'tell their side of the story.' One month's expenditure by the insurance industry for those activities substantially exceeds the cost of making 'Sicko.' And Moore doesn't own a single member of Congress; they've bought dozens."
-James Clay Fuller-

In "Sicko: Commenting on commentaries", Fuller tears apart the critics who are attempting to tear apart Moore's latest film. Over at Daily Kos, they're wondering what would happen if media star journalists, such as CNN star Dr. Sanjay Gupta, spent more time investigating our health care crisis than analyzing Paris Hilton's prison adventures:

"Sanjay Gupta is a media super-star on America's premier cable news network. We know he is both courageous and not easily politically intimidated. His reporting from Iraq and New Orleans demonstrated that. He's tackled many aspects of healthcare and science on his regular program, House Call is one of the best CNN has to offer in my view. So one has to wonder: If non-doctor, film-maker Michael Moore can raise awareness of what Gupta agrees is an important issue, doesn't it make sense that the best known medical doctor/journalist in America could too?"

How We Celebrate the Fourth of July

"'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,' says the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Unless, of course, you are a friend of the president."
-Amy Goodman-

In "The High Cost of Libby's Silence," Goodman explores why commutation is worse, for the cause of justice, than a pardon. As blogger Marcy Wheeler tells her: "With a commutation, Scooter Libby retains his Fifth Amendment rights." Meaning? If a member of Congress were to call a hearing, Scooter could take the Fifth, protecting himself against self-incrimination by remaining silent, whereas, had he been pardoned and completely cleared of any wrongdoing, "then he would have a harder time refusing to answer questions. Libby's continued silence protects Bush and Cheney."