This image is burned was burned into my head. the 4th of June, 1989.
I was in Panama wearing a uniform. We were braced for immanent conflict (title of this blog).
That was what I volunteered to do.
Others have shit thrust upon them.
Remember this guy? Yeah. The guy with the briefcase that stopped a convoy of Chinese tanks on their way to Tienanmen Square.
He was fed up. A regular guy who got up that morning, brushed his teeth and whistled on his way to work. Then he found out all hell was breaking loose and did the unthinkable - he put his life on the line in an act of Gandhian non-violence against a veritable juggernaut.
In a nod to the late chairman, he disappeared without a trace. The identity and whereabouts of "Tank Man" are unknown. One editorialist in 1989 called him the "bravest sonavabitch in the world."
I salute this volunteer in the war against tyranny. His small frame towers over the many.
