We just learned who Time has chosen as person of the year and it’s a teenager talking about climate change. I’m not going to take shots at a young girl, but she is the wrong person for such a recognition.
Over in Hong Kong, people are literally standing up for freedom. I agree with Ben Domenech:
In defiance of the most powerful authoritarian regime in the modern world, the protester in Hong Kong has stood against the authority of Red China with courage and dedication.
They have not bowed to the brutality of the police, who have murdered, raped, and abused them. They have not run from the tear gas or the hoses. They have refused to back down. And because of that, their message has been heard.
It is a protest that cuts across the lines of age and class. While the protesters are younger, they are supported by their parents’ generation, which feels guilt over not asserting themselves earlier. So their mantra is: Be water.
Hong Kong has enjoyed freedoms never present in mainland China. They see those freedoms slipping away. And rather than bow to that inexorable betrayal, the thuggish assertion of the murderous state, they stood, and they fight.
There is no bigger fight. And so, the Hong Kong protester is the Person of the Year.
It takes a lot of courage to march against a totalitarian government. Cheers for the people doing so in Hong Kong.