statueman's Blog

One of my fondest memories in life was my 3 years 6 months that I lived and worked in Seoul Korea with the US Army.  I was the luckiest of soldiers getting assigned as the unit clerk at the Armed Forces Korea Network in February 1988 just before the summer Olympics in Seoul.  Apparently a good haircut and spit shined shoes counted for something.

Anywho...

China will be hit with one of the greatest weapons of the American 'Arsenal of Freedom, the American News Media.  While they are there our wonderfully courageous and sometimes seriously manic news people will research and pry and investigate and go places where angels fear to tread.  Our thirst for freedom for those we see being oppressed may even spark all kinds of unstoppable grass roots movements as news stories of all kinds come from behind the bamboo curtain.

We like to think that it's somehow wrong to criticize our own country too much don't we?  But I think that's what sets us apart in the world.  Even while in the Army I remember having folks say all the accolades about the service member being the embodiment of freedom.  And I believe it.  But there are soldiers of freedom from all walks of life… doctors, lawyers, plumbers, bitter gun toting bible thumpers (couldn’t resist) and Journalists.

But it’s the News folks who make freedom work from the inside out.  People do evil things and if folks don’t know about it then no one can address the evil that men do.  Look at the embarrassing revelation of children being held against their will and made to have sexual relations and even bear children to men much older than themselves.  We’re finding out about whole townships supporting a way of life that even makes undercover police work nearly impossible.  Who would want to take the job?  (Don’t answer that!)

Last anywho…

I think that our presence in China will plant the virus of democracy and freedom in a part of the world where it is definitely needed.  From our athletes to our news folks the unpredictable persona of us “Ugly Americans” and our incredible love for smiling will cause a small ripple effect that I sincerely believe will infect a communist nation with something wonderful.  Like the old Vulcan proverb that Spock told Captain Kirk, “Only Nixon could go to China.”