…I reflected back to cowering behind the same bathroom wall every time a column of soldiers fired their weapons and that hellish night of June 4th following the Tiananmen crackdown. I had suffered a serious concussion after a stray rock slammed into my face. The Nikon Titanium camera had absorbed the blow saving my life.

As I ordered room service, the stale cheeseburger reminded me of how stunned I was 20 years earlier to see CNN footage of events I experienced only a few hours before on the street. I recalled how sick I was from the flu and my throbbing concussion. That feeling of guilt mixed with regret for not returning to the streets after the injury and my sheer terror of almost dying. The fact is, I was just too scared, injured and sick. The decision probably saved my life.

Isn’t it ironic that one man who was too afraid to leave his hotel room captured the arresting image of another man’s courage?

Had Jeff Widener not been terrified, that photograph, which to me encapsulates the very essence of bravery, never would have been taken…

I don’t know who that lone protester was, or if he is alive or dead.

But I salute him today, on the twentieth anniversary of his amazing act of courage, defiance and selflessness, which has inspired me, and millions of others around the world to be brave and courageous in our own ways.

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