Stuart,

You commented that you thought the Chinese government's action in cracking down on the students was obscene and reprehensible. I agree with you that it was obscene and reprehensible and also was very predictable.

I refer to them as "dissidents" in the same way as they were referred to commonly in the local newspapers, meaning disagreeing with the government and making a loud show of their disagreement.

I also think the active members of the student groups were misguided and lacked common sense and a knowledge of history (remember the incident of throwing paint on the portrait of Mao, and the students that caught the "hooligans" and turned them over to the police; the subsequent indication that nothing was done to them hints to me that they - the "hooligans" - were probably provacuteurs hired by the anti-student conservatives.) This shows me that there were some thoughtful students in the groups.

However, my point is that you are the one who made the erroneous assumptions about my feelings. Maybe you can explain to an old man like me how that conclusion was reached?

If you wonder how I came to that conclusion - of an inevitable crackdown - and want to read thru a few thousand words of explanation, just let me know and I'll be glad to tell you why I thought that. (I did read Fred Shapiro's article in New Yorker and thought it was a good, thoughtful and well written article of what he saw there.)