[Peace-discuss] the bifurcation

[E. Wayne Johnson]

A Chinese dissident seems to have escaped from "house arrest" and is 
allegedly holed up
in the American embassy on the other side of town.  Apparently some 
carefully orchestrated
deal, since the security at the new American Embassy near Liangmaqiao is 
very heavy indeed.
You don't just walk up and introduce yerself as a dissident seeking 
asylum.  No way, no how.

Neither do you dodge around like Kevin Costner avoiding y pursuers past 
Annie's, the Hard Rock
Cafe', Starbucks, and Fatburger's and finally slip on down the street 
and make your way through
the interminable lines of amassed Chinamen queueing for visas... Then 
hurl yourself at the door...
"It's me, Chen!  The cops are after me!  Let me in!"  It's Polly Anna 
Parcheesi, and Chen has
evaded chance and his competitors.  He's made it.  Welcome home, Comrade 
Chen.

Actually, it's nothing like that it seems.

After all, Mr. Chen is blind.  We weep at his affliction.  But he is not 
able to hear or feel his way to
the asylum of the American Embassy.

Obviously this is political theatre, and Chen is victim and hero of some 
grand design.
He has escaped from the clutches of the dragon.  Shades of Churchill and 
Papillon.

Press releases follow.

***

Thousands of miles away in New Mexico an American activist languishes in 
house arrest.

He wears sci-fi movie-esque ankle bracelet as a constant reminder that 
he is a prisoner of the state.

No visits to the blacksmith to have it removed.  No shooting it off with 
a .45 like in the old west.
No sawing it off with Gigli wire.  No fastening it to a coyote and 
sending the paramilitary
police on a merry chase across the high desert.

Any slight indiscretion in movement on his part, and the GPS watch dog 
team comes down on him like a
million tons of rain.  Most Americans have no idea who he is.  Some who 
know are glad that he
is neutralized, and they feel safer at night knowing that he is under 
the custody of the state.  He awaits
trial and an uncertain future.  He gets a bill every month for the ankle 
bracelet.  He can't get a job.
If he doesnt pay up for the bracelet he goes back to the warm security 
of the iron hotel.

Some of us call him friend, or brother.
Some shed a tear and share his torment.
He made some bad choices it seems.

But for the grace of God, there go I, we sigh.

If only he could make it to the Chinese Embassy...