You know about Tank Man, the anonymous Chinese demonstrator who singlehandedly blocked a column of tanks as they attempted to leave the scene of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
No one except for Chinese authorities knows the man’s name. No one except for the Chinese authorities knows his fate.
The entire world, however, knows that Tank Man stood alone, shopping bags in hand, facing down a column of tanks as they returned from slaughtering a peaceful, pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
And you know who is kind of like the famed anonymous Chinese protester, according to Los Angeles Times Seattle Bureau Chief Richard Read? A woman who stripped down naked this weekend in Portland, Oregon, amid violent demonstrations targeting federal property.
Mysterious #NakedAthena, wearing only face mask and cap, confronts Trump’s forces at #PortlandProtests, symbolizing human vulnerability. https://t.co/G4gCOB7LgL
— Richard Read (@RichReadReports) July 20, 2020
“Images of her on social media harked back to previous iconic — but clothed — images juxtaposing force and vulnerability, such as the 1967 photo of a Vietnam War protester who faced a line of U.S. troops and placed a carnation into the barrel of a soldier’s rifle,” the Los Angeles Times article says of the woman known only as “Naked Athena.”
It adds, “In an ultimate act of defiance broadcast worldwide, a man stood in front of a column of tanks leaving Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, a day after the Chinese military had suppressed protests by force.”
Except for the likelihood that the world will soon know the identity of “Naked Athena,” the likelihood she will go on to live a long, celebrated life, the fact that she was never in imminent threat of death, despite the fact that there is a veritable army of U.S. lawyers and politicians at the ready to defend the woman’s right to assembly and free speech, and despite the fact that, unlike Tiananmen Square, it is not even clear what the rioters in Portland are protesting, the similarities between “Naked Athena” and Tank Man are uncanny!
Really nailed the comparison, Los Angeles Times.
“She emerged as an apparition from clouds of tear gas as federal agents fired pepper balls at angry protesters in the early Saturday darkness,” reads the article titled “Out of Portland tear gas, an apparition emerges, capturing the imagination of protesters.”
The hero-worship continues, “A woman wearing nothing but a black face mask and a stocking cap strode toward a dozen heavily armed agents attired in camouflage fatigues, lined up across a downtown Portland street. The agents, dispatched by the Trump administration over vociferous objections of state and city officials, are part of a force that has fired projectiles at and detained activists protesting nightly since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police May 25.”
Yes, those activists, many of whom have attempted to establish a so-called “autonomous zone,” are targeting federal properties and smashing up local businesses because they are upset about George Floyd. That is precisely what is going on in Portland.
The L.A. Times report adds, “Numerous photos and videos posted on Twitter show the unidentified woman as she halted in the middle of the street at about 1:45 a.m. She stood calmly, a surreal image of human vulnerability in the face of an overpowering force that has been criticized nationally by civil rights advocates.”
What an indignity it is for members of the free press to compare the heroics of a man who stood up to the overwhelming force of the murderous Chinese communist regime to the self-serving histrionics of a naked, and free, American demonstrator.
To this day, it is unclear how many pro-freedom protesters died in 1989 at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing still claims only 200 civilians and “security personnel” were killed in the massacre. A more realistic tally puts the figure at around 10,000.
