Failing Tank Man

[Tuesday_Morning]

A moving essay via DailyKos. Also loved the comments at the end.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/145541/307

I Have One Hero. I Fail Him Every Day.
by withthelidoff

Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 11:55:41 AM PDT

A few weeks ago, Frontline did an hour on "Tank Man," the mysterious Chinese man who, in 1989, stood up to tanks in Tiananmen Square. I've spent the subsequent weeks deeply upset with myself. Tiananmen Square, and Tank Man in particular, is my very first memory of current events. And it's never faded.

<snip>

Fast forward through 17 years of alternately rabid and passive political activism. Through consistent disgust with the functional and moral clock of this country being gradually wound backwards punctuated by bursts of action and days of frustrated abandonment. Taunted by the absolute, undying conviction that we're on the verge of making liberalism a great force undermined by "almost" after "almost." I read blogs and newspapers, I write the occasional diary and sprinkle comments through the cyberworld. I try my best to sneak in a few words of the gospel to my friends, family, and people I meet on the streets. But I wonder- where is my desperation? Why is this what I do in my spare time? Is this the ultimate truth of the quest to set things right? That the very basis of things going wrong is that those of us who realize have to fight so damned hard just to keep things together that we don't have time or energy or the emotional fortitude to take it back over the top and hit them again, harder, every single time? Why is it that I so rarely am pushed past the occasional blog posting? Where is my tank?

more at link....