Tiananmen Square Reflective Essay

. The reports about what happened on June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square vary so greatly that it makes it nearly impossible to know what actually happened. It is clear that the writers all had different perceptions of the events. I know my perceptions would have influenced the way I saw the events, as well. In turn, it would have affected the way I wrote about the events that took place. One of the things that would color my perspective and affect the way I would write about the events that happened in Tiananmen Square is where I was raised. I was raised in the United States, a country based on freedom and democracy. I was raised believing in freedom of the press, the right to protest, and freedom of speech. I grew up with the right to speak …show more content…
I can remember the way I felt all those years ago and my reaction to the news reports. I can remember my outrage at the Chinese government for attacking the protestors. I failed to see any other side and view things from any other perspective. The sixteen-year-old version of myself in 1989 definitely would have written something different than the forty-three-year-old version would today. I would like to say that anything I wrote today would be unbiased, but that would not be true. I would try to be unbiased and I might even think that I was succeeding in being unbiased, but in the end my beliefs would have an effect on the story. I am not sure that it is possible to be completely unbiased, because most of us are viewing things through perceiving lenses that we do not even realize we have. Even those of us that are very good at examining our perceptions and beliefs may at some point discover that they have spent years looking through a cloudy or cracked perceiving …show more content…
This may in part be due to the type of language that was used by the media and our country’s leaders in the hours and days following the attack. In terrorist attacks that have followed most of the media and most of our leaders have been more selective in their language hoping to avoid further violence against innocent Muslim people that live in our country. Emotive and euphemistic language are not the only types of language that can create problems during war. Vague language, especially if it’s used by the military or someone negotiating the end of a war could have some very serious consequences. When handling these situations language needs to be clear and precise. Every person involved in the conversation needs to clearly understand what the person speaking actually