To those who stand idly by,

America is often touted as “the land of the free”. We celebrate the Fourth of July with explosives and cheap toys from inside carts, all the while, being proud of our independence. We all learned about how terrible King George III was in history class, and how we bravely stood up to him. What we seem to have forgotten is that we weren’t alone. France was a steadfast ally in our quest for independence. 

France supplied us arms and powder, as well as generals and uniforms. France brought itself into over 1 million livres in debt to provide aid. It’s safe to say America had help when she needed it. Now, we need to pay it forward to Hong Kong, To help them like France helped us.

Hong Kong is currently in the shadow of a tyrant in the form of the Communist Party of China. And that’s proven to be a tough shadow to escape. Hong Kong has been lucky so far as it’s been granted some degree of autonomy compared to the rest of The ”People’s Republic” of China thanks to the Sino–British Joint Declaration. But that’s disappearing in 2047, when it is set to stop being a Special Administrative Region of China.

The people of Hong Kong have that same ache for freedom we had under the British. We cannot ignore their pleas for freedom. We all must do something before nobody can do anything. Enlightenment Ideals being stamped out in Hong Kong won’t be the end of it. 

Whatever happens will set a precedent that will bleed into everything else. Should we protect the inherent human rights of others, or do we just leave them to freeze in the harsh cold of a Communist society? Do we have a responsibility to help those in need, or can we just ignore them like uncaring pedestrians?

We will answer these questions by how we respond to this humanitarian crisis. God help us if we answer wrong. 

There is so much we can do to stand with Hong Kong. You can Boycott companies and organizations that bow down to Chinese pressure, like the NBA, Blizzard, and Twitter. You can hand out informational pamphlets and hold protests. You can write to your elected representatives, and to groups that do business with China. And one of the most important things you can do is educate others about what is going on and how tyrannical the communist Chinese government is.