Reno Hayek Symposium

I count 7 separate articles in the first section of today’s (1-14-10) WSJ on Google’s stand for individual freedom in China. Quick summary:

• U.S. Holds Fire in Google-China Feud.
• A Heated Debate at the Top.
• Web Is New Front Among Cold War Foes.
• Levi’s Left, Too-And Came Back.
• Pullout Threat Jolts Chinese Users.
• Clash on the Great Firewall.
• Google Gets on the Right Side of History.

The last of these is rather frightening linking what is going on in China to what was going on in East Germany with the rat-on-your-neighbor system set up by the Stasi, only recently discovered with the release of Stasi files.

We all realize that freedom will one day come to China, just as modernity will one day come to Islam. The question in each case is what it takes to get there. How much pain, how much protest, how much bloodshed, and how much money sacrificed.

We see with Google that principle overcomes profit. It recognizes that our First Amendment rights, freedom of speech, press, and religion are the basic rights of a democracy. Google stands up. The United States government sits by.

A follow-up in Bloomberg this evening reports that Google tried to enlist other companies to help draw attention to the cyber attacks from China without success. Since that failure of support three U.S. companies have stepped up and said they were the subject of cyber attacks, Adobe Systems, Inc., Juniper Networks Inc., and Rackspace Hosting Inc.

We should be justifiably proud that Google leads and other American companies follow to exercise their voice for individual freedom in the face of loss. The Founding Fathers’ spirit lives, thank God!

It’s not all about money!

Tom Motherway