History will forever remember the coordinates of 31 degrees north latitude and 103.4 east longitude. A devastating quake that jolted China on May 12 costs tens of thousands of lives in a twinkling. Wenchuan county and its adjacent areas in western China symbolize a site with people's tears of blood and untold sufferings as well as a tragedy for China's homeland.
May 19, 2008 will indelibly be engraved on the minds of people in China, as it begins a three-day national mourning, during which the national flag flies at half-mast and 1.3 billion people nationwide give their blessings and pray silently for those who have been lost in debris.
China holds three days of nationwide morning for quake victims. The State Council, or the central Chinese government, issued an announcement on Sunday or May 18, that the mourning period would be from Monday through Wednesday, or from May 19 to 21, with national flags flown at half-mast for a profound mourning of countrymen of all ethnicities across China. Also on Sunday or May 18, the Beijing Olympic Committee made a decision that a nationwide display of torch relay for the Beijing Olympic Games would be suspended for three days for the same reason of mourning quake victims.
In the wake of six full days and nights of moving, inspiring rescue efforts and after the people have undergone the initial shock and ensuring gnaws and disturbances, such a day is required to hold the supreme memorial ceremony in the name of the state to mourn tens of thousands of those perished instantly; and such a ceremony is required to release our grief and pour out our sorrows, so as to tell all the victims that "we love you, and we cherish your memory with deep affection."
The loss of every human life means a loss to the state and implies a sorrow or distress for the nation, as every citizen is the master of his own destiny in the country. At 2:28 p.m. on May 12, 2008, the tremor that jolted Wenchuan shocked the whole of China and alarmed the world at large, and it can be indeed cited as a tragedy in human history with the gravest intensity in reducing people's lives and the greatest imperils it has inflicted upon people.
All qake victims are related to us as flesh to blood and represent part of our national flag. Designating the day of national mourning and flying the national flag at half-mast not only offer a kind of memorial service but proclaim the respect and love of the Chinese government for human lives and the radiance of human glory and the command of respect and dignity as a citizen.
"Saving lives is top priority", "rescue efforts made a second faster can save one more human life" and "one hundred-fold endeavor will be made if there is a slight hope for survival."… After the the disaster occurred, the Party and government have also placed their respect for human lives in the first place.
This type of respect has been indicated by the sight of the Party General Secretary on the land that was still jolted with a string of after-shocks and by tears of the Chinese premier shed on ruins of the shaking, trembling land, by the iron will of hundreds of thousands of soldiers (and officers) of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and by deep affection or sentiments of the people nationwide toward the quake victims.
The unexpected quake put the people's quality of the Chinese nation to the test, and the responsibility of the nation to the test. It poses precisely a direct embodiment for the human nature and responsibility of the government which "makes the people first" to shade light or hopes on those buried under debris and give respect to the lives of those countrymen who have died.
When the Chinese national flag flew at its half-mast for ordinary people, when million upon millions of people mourned together for those who have fallen in the quake, and this shows the cordial, unending blood-flesh ties between the government and people. Meanwhile, it shows the revering respect of a nation for human lives and enunciates the chief purpose of the party in power with the concept that "all power belongs to the people."
Pay tribute to those who have fallen and cheer for those who are alive. The earthquake is unavoidable and, when it befalls us, we will have something to repose our pains and sorrows and to show our confidence and courage. We'll stand side by side under the bright-colored the five-star red flag and our people get united like a fortress on the unyielding land of the Chinese nation.
The Chinese national flag drops slowly to the half-mast whereas the respect of lives is ascending. Let us pay respect for those who have disappeared swiftly in the quake, light up the lives of those who have sunk deeply into the dark and pool strength for the nation, which has experienced repeated, untold sufferings.
By People's Daily Online
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