The lowdown on my arrest in China

As you probably are quite aware of, I have supported the non-violent struggle for political and religious freedom in Tibet for over a dozen years. I joined Students for a Free Tibet a few months after they started, and I watched them grow from a dozen chapters in high schools and colleges in the US to thousands of chapters worldwide. I was their first Regional Director and then Sector Coordinator for the entire tri-state region. So, this is not only a cause I feel close to, it's something that I have pledged a good portion of my life supporting.

After nine days in China, on August 9th I took part in a demonstration in Tiananmen Square. This was not a spur of the moment action - on the contrary, I spent three months training for it! We were arrested and held for eight hours before being deported from China. I made my point clear to the interrogating officers: this was NOT a protest against the Chinese people. Instead, it was a protest against the Chinese Government.

Were we successful?? You bet! We managed to shift the attention of the Olympics from China's glitz and glamour to the real situation inside China. And almost every day, news headlines around the world mentioned our protests. Just our protest had a HUGE amount of press - CNN, NY Times, etc... my Grandmother called my mother at 8am because she saw an article in the NY Daily News!!

Here is a short video of the action:

Tiananmen “Tibet Die-in” Protest 080908 from Students for a Free Tibet on Vimeo.

Here is a long video of the protest (I strongly suggest watching this one!)


Here are some pictures from the action, the rest are at http://louiss19.winkflash.com/ :









Thanks for reading!!