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Editorial: Myths, Misinformation and Propaganda
December 16th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: Will Park Closure Just Make Things Worse?
November 29th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: October and November Surprises
October 30th, 2008

Editorial: Is the Sky Falling?
September 24th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: Who Reads Cedar Key News?
September 19th, 2008

Editorial: The First Hurdle for Every Child
September 3rd, 2008

Editorial: A View of China from Cedar Key
August 18th, 2008

Editorial: Who Killed the Real Estate Market?
August 8th, 2008

Editorial: Editorial: It`s Clamerica!
July 1st, 2008

Editorial: Can the City Commission Limit Noise?
June 6th, 2008

Editorial: Unintended Results Rock the Boat
May 29th, 2008

Editorial: Creeping Gas Prices
May 13th, 2008

Editorial: Cedar Key Election Soon
April 30th, 2008

Editorial: Questions fo the Candidates
April 2nd, 2008

Editorial: Coming Elections: National County and City
March 19th, 2008

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A View of China from Cedar Key

A View of China from Cedar Key

Editorial

More than twenty years ago a Chinese scientist visiting the U.S. was asked," Will China ever have free elections?" He replied that there are six parties in China, with candidates on the ballots. When asked what would happen if one of the non-Communist parties won he replied, "Nothing would happen because only the Communist Party has an army."

June 4, 1989, a few years after the visiting scientist's edifying answer, Chinese government tanks and troops with rifles killed an estimated 2600 men and women assembled in Beijing's Tiananmen Square asking for a democratic government.

Protests in China and around the world over the Chinese government's oppression of religious, ethnic and political minorities have intensified in recent months. Government promises that news censorship would not occur during the 2008 Olympics have been forgotten.

Censorship has continued. But, just as pollution has not been controlled, reports of pollution and protests have slipped out. Global news is truly global.

Economic reform has swept China since the Tiananmen Square massacre. But the Chinese government, in preparation for and execution of the Olympics, has shown the heavy hand of dictatorship.

We in Cedar Key, so far from China, might try to ignore China. However, events in China should remind us of our freedoms to assemble without fear of tanks, to criticize officials without fear of prison and to vote for an array of candidates. We must not acquiesce to limits of our freedoms of speech and assembly. Finally, we must remember that events like the Tiananmen Square massacre can happen when there is too much political power at the top.

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