This is a video about courage. This person has become known to the 20th century simply as "Tank Man". On June fifth, 1989, on a street who's name translates into the 'Gate of Eternal Peace', a single man confronts a line of tanks after days of bloodshed in Tiananmen Square. Shortly after this video ends, this man actually had the courage to climb up onto the tank and knock on the hatch.
Peaceful protests by students and intellects, started in the previous weeks, had gained considerable momentum and soon 1 in 10 from all ages and classes were involved. The people were ordered to leave. They didn't. Martial law was instated. They did not leave. The military was called in, and still they demonstrated peacefully. They were shot at and some were hit in the back as they ran with panic, but they came back. They were fired on again, and still they came back. Again and again they were fired upon. Again and again they came back. They were not going to let the military have their city.
For days this went on and the tables turned, the people's will weakened, and the military had the upper hand. ...And then this man, still unidentified to this day, steps in front of a parading line of tanks in defiance. The tanks try to go around him, but he steps in front of them. He's just some average guy with bags of what look like groceries in his hands, and he shows the entire world what true courage actually looks like.
There is a message in this for all of us in these troubled times, and it is that all you ever need is courage, and with that you can change the world.
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