When Mr. Li sent out the words that would later become evidence of his guilt, he did not necessarily have many thoughts of warning the people in his mind. He probably just wanted to do his best to slightly remind people around him to pay more attention. He said a few words with a few certainty, plus the sensitive and cautious professional habits.
I guess this does not harm Mr. Li’s benevolence, but rather reveals his greatness. What makes us human is also the same kind of equal caring, watchful and helpful heart.
Therefore, what made Mr. Li’s righteous deed possible was not goodness, but precisely evil. Just as what took his Life seemed to be a virus, it was actually power. What made Mr. Li touch the hearts of countless people was not only the subsequent monstrous disaster, but also the arrogant admonition. It was the question on it, “Do you understand?”, and the red handprint that he was forced to press down.
The greedy and violent power devours all those it cannot see. This Time it knocked an ordinary citizen who was buzzing and fine, and had to send him with a big hand to continue his duty in the front line until he unfortunately got infected.
How can we tolerate it and allow such a vicious beast to dominate any longer? A simple word of advice can become a trumped-up charge, and what will eventually wear out is our sincere hearts towards each other.
If so, how can we be human. Not to mention, for a modern citizen.
That night we mourned Mr. Li, in different cool and hot temperatures, we felt cold to the bone. It was fear, sadness, and anger, powerlessness. Just with the communal blend of millions of people, I will always believe that there is a silver lining. We should not be reduced to the flesh of a vicious beast, not just a straw in the wind. We have waited too long, too long, until a man like Mr. Lee came to prick our parched hearts.
Seventeen years ago, Dr. Jiang was the real whistle blower. He fought to the death and contacted foreign media by name before he pushed the authorities, who had just changed their shifts, to take the Epidemic seriously. Dr. Jiang was a true hero, and he was prepared to die. In a sense, he was the last moral conscience of an era.
Yet seventeen years later, Dr. Li is so ordinary. He was young and had all kinds of ordinary joys and sorrows like you and me. He longed for a better life and reminded those around him with pure good intentions. As well as very honestly, writing his name in the book of admonition.
Not many of us can be Dr. Jiang, but many of us are Dr. Li. In the eyes of many, it is enough to be cautious, bow down and submit, roll with the punches when things go wrong, and then do your job. Although retaining the occasional kindness, but once it leads to trouble, it will immediately retreat.
This is the only way that many people find out how far a vicious beast has pushed us. If you didn’t speak up for others yesterday, then it’s you who will be banned today. Today still hold the idea that there are only a handful of bad elements, tomorrow the evil beast will eat you alive. The best result is to encounter the great lord of the blue sky, and then give you a late and not at all counted result of justice.
If your claim is just to live, like a mole cricket also in the words, then we have nothing to talk about. I just want to tell you that countless of our ancestors have opened their eyes to the world in the last two hundred years. In the midst of the unprecedented changes of the past three thousand years, what we have received in exchange for our heads and blood is not just to continue to live like ants.
Even more, we have to be like maggots.
What we seek is to live with dignity, equality and freedom. A man who almost became Dr. Zhou wrote that there are only two eras in our history, the era of being stable masters and slaves, and the era of being unstable masters and slaves. But what we want is not to be a master nor a slave; what we want is inevitably a time when there is no master nor slave.
In an era like that, Dr. Jiang is bound to be in the minority, and may not even appear. But more importantly, Dr. Lee is bound to be the majority, and he can do his majority with dignity and peace of mind.
Instead of answering — “can”, “understand”.
Dr. Lee is not a hero, and he should not be a hero. His descent into heroism is not the hymn of the age, but a wake-up call. It may even, possibly, be an elegy. Every bit of our concessions continues to create tragedies like Dr. Li’s. Until even with Dr. Jiang, we cannot be redeemed.
So far, the long dike and the anthill, the building will fall.
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