Glutter

I heard Martin Lee on the radio yesterday. I sat in the parked car in hot LA sun to listen to the whole interview. It struck me that in the quiet of America, there is no Chinese Propaganda. There is no hoopla about the reunification, nothing exploding in the sky to commemorate the special day, no national glory -only the reasons why the Hong Kong legislators do not have power, how we got 62% of the votes yet only 40% of the seats. How they can vote on governmental bills but not policy. How in order to ensure Hong Kong gets to keep it's freedom is through universal suffrage.

It was strange -I never heard those words out of context of what was going on around me. Hong Kong felt so small, fitted in with another hundreds of new stories that circulate through the NPR (National Public Radio) though the months I have been here. It is not front and center. Just another story of social justice around the world, in between global warming stories of Polynesia, mental health issues of returning US soldiers, women trying to make a business in Africa. My home seems small, when it used to feel like the biggest city in the world.

In my pottery class, there is a man from Tel Aviv, my teacher is Armenian who came to America during the Soviet times, a program by one of the Jewish centers to help Jews leave communist countries. We each have our stories of where home is, what is going on there, and the struggles of the people left behind.

It all seems very far away, not immediate but bombs do go off, rights get taken away, and people are very poor and electricity isn't always there. But it doesn't compute completely, because we're all sitting in a quiet room making pottery.

I think that's what America does to you. It's so big, even in a city like LA, we all own our house, we have our very small lives, and we live it. We're thinking of getting a dog, we're talking about how we might have a family one day, we're getting shade trees from LA county for free because it will reduce electricity use, as it will keep the house cool.

But sometimes I think of Hong Kong, and democracy. I think how strange that every time I sit in a room here, if I say that "I think Hong Kong people should get to rule themselves, I think that Chinese people should have democracy." No one, practically no one will disagree. And it's not really out of ignorance, it's not because president Bush feels that the country should spread the tenants of American government to the rest of the world that makes most people feel that way.

They feel that way because they live the benefits of a stable government every day. Many many people in LA comes from somewhere that is politically unstable. Where regimes changes, and people fight. Here they feel empowered to do something if they don't like the policy. They can lobby their congress representatives, write letters, and vote -if they choose to, they can also do absolutely nothing and still reap the benefits of being in America.

I have been going around saying "Free speech is not political, free speech is about getting to live every day life. It's about being able to explore the options and talking to people if they want about whatever that comes to mind."

We joke about California succeeding from the United states all the time. We are the world's eighth biggest economy, 30 cents of our federal tax dollars goes out of state to other places, every time the federal taxes comes into our lives, I give some money to the government and I don't know where it goes. I would like to think it goes to museums and schools, but who knows. And with the extra 30 cents maybe my nephews can have health care, and the lady down the street can have health care, and every body can have health care.

And the nice thing is, no one is accusing us of being unpatriotic, the FBI is not tapping my phone, this blog is not going to be banned in the United States, coz we talk about maybe California would be better off if it was it's own country. We're not buying guns and building up a military to fight the federal government, we're just talking about it.

But if you're in Hong Kong and you say Hong Kong should have universal suffrage, if we talk about being it's own country. That's being revolutionary, it's being radical, that's not being part of the "harmonious society." My blog is still banned in China, I probably won't be visiting for a good long while, and really no one in Hong Kong is looking to depose anyone, to take power from someone with anything but a legal and peaceful way.

My aunt woke up the other morning because Hu Jin Tao came to Hong Kong and she wanted to see his speech. i really didn't want to, and it took me a while to realize I have a hard time listenning to people who I don't know how they got to power.

I tried to work out how Hu Jin Tao came to power outside of the fact he worked up the party and Jiang Zimen liked him. I wondered if he had to depose anyone, did he get rid of someone in a back handed way to get where he is. I only know the official story and I don't have much faith in that. There is no one who will come out and discuss the unsavory things about Hu Jin Tao.

I don't know how the leaders in China really got to power and I never will.

I don't know if the stories of how they are doing a good job, how they are fair and good to be real or just propaganda.

I wonder if the vote of no confidence Blair had to take could possible happen so publicly in China without him going under house arrest, even if just to make sure he stays out of the way so he and his supporter can't engineer a coup to regain power.

I wonder how it is that China has never had an exchange of leaders who don't agree without blood, imprisonment, war or arrest.

A long time ago, before my grandmother died, she pointed to Bill Clinton shaking hands with George Bush the original as the democrats took over the white house and said, "Look at that, they are shaking hands... that would never happen in China."

I think maybe one day.

Maybe when you're so far away from home, you can actually think things that you cannot when you are there. You can think, I am not being counter-revolutionary, I am not being radical. I am not asking to depose the Chinese government. I just want the leaders to shake hands when they exchange power even if they don't agree. How bad can that be? You think that is a normal want, that people deserve to have a say, deserve to live in peace and not fear major changes.

I feel that what I believe in is no longer anything ridiculous or asking too much. I don't even think it's worth that much that I need to say. It's like the quiet makes things clearer, and you end up not shouting so loud. You just believe and hope and live your life.