Tea at Trianon: Unsilenced

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Unsilenced

From The Daily Signal:

Just over 20 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting those in China who followed the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. Today, Uyghur Muslims face imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Chinese government. Tomorrow, more innocent lives will fall victim to suffering at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party if Beijing’s totalitarian leaders do not face consequences for those human rights abuses.

In the new documentary film “Unsilenced,” director Leon Lee tells the true story of those who were persecuted and killed by China’s government because they practiced Falun Gong. The film highlights the stories of those who “risk their lives and use their wisdom to find ways to counter the propaganda and fight for their freedom” in China, Lee says. But the threats of the Chinese Communist Party extend far beyond its borders, the film director says. It’s past time for America to recognize that the Chinese Communist Party “is the biggest threat the West faces,” Lee says. (Read more.)