Millions of us watched with awe this week at the grandeur of the Olympics’ opening ceremonies in China. The beauty of the people. The precision of the drums. The surprise of young people popping out of boxes that seconds before were bobbing up and down as if they were operated by a computer. And of course the traditional lighting of the Olympic flame.
Even as I watched all of the beauty of the ceremonies, in the back of my mind all I could think about was the atrocious human rights record of China. Citizens can’t freely talk about politics online or offline. There are government sanctioned places of worship. Workers can be fired at will and overworked without compensation. Environmental standards simply don’t exist.
Students for a Free Tibet is a group working on educating young people around the world about the Tibetan people and the rule of China. Through direct action, rallies, trainings and media events students continue to raise awareness and get the word out on behalf of Tibetan families.
The group is using the Olympics to raise awareness and to get young people from all over the world involved in nonviolent protests. My friend, Matt Browner-Hamlin, traveled to China to be part of this historic action. He is a political junkie currently working on a political race and worked on a Presidential campaign earlier in the year.
At first glance of Matt’s resume you wouldn’t think he would be involved with Students for Free Tibet since he has spent so much time on campaigns, but that is the great thing about the Millennial generation. They don’t keep their values in silos, instead they connect their service and politics in a way no other generation has done.
Matt arrived in China unsure if he would have the courage to unveil a Free Tibet flag like other young people did earlier in the week as part of the Free Tibet 2008 coordinated actions during the Olympics. He and his friend went to an equestrian event in Hong Kong with a Tibetan flag hidden on him. This is a lot riskier than it sounds since China is a communist nation; protestors are not usually treated as welcome visitors.
In a brief moment between riders, Matt and his friend rose up, unveiled the flag and stood is silent protest…for 15 seconds. The security was on them in that short amount of time and carried them away with sheets over their heads. Since Matt and his friend were trained and knew what could happen next, they both remained calm and started to talk about why there were there even as the police were carrying them away. Matt knew press would be around them, so it was the perfect time to tell their story.
Matt and his friend did get their story out to various news outlets and will continue to tell the story of why Tibet needs to be free from China’s rule when they get back to the states. What is still unclear is if protests, like what Matt did, will impact China’s rule over Tibet. The alternative of course is to remain silent with the thought that protests don’t do anything.
Matt, however, does not roll that way and nor does this generation. At time when we as a nation and a world community face big problems, it is these actions coupled with the political engagement of voting that will begin to change America into a country that leads once again—one that leads in alternative energy, one that leads in healthcare, one that leads in education and one that leads in serving as the moral conscience of the world.