Not So Far Away

(For all the right reasons (10:10 a.m. EST) – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Across America last weekend, most people paid little if any attention to news about the brutal suppression of democracy advocacy in Myanmar by General Than Shwe and his regime.  They had places to go and people to see.  Football stadiums were filled to capacity by millions of fans eager to watch their team’s latest must-win game.  From New York to California, throngs of shoppers filled the malls to celebrate America’s greatness by handing some of their minimum wage dollars to minimum wage clerks in exchange for a shirt or blouse made by other minimum wage workers. That night, many of these football fans and shoppers went to a restaurant to hand a few more of their minimum wage dollars to a minimum wage waitress in exchange for a meal prepared by a minimum wage cook.

Prosperity from The Gipper’s tax cuts will trickle down any day now, so eat, drink, and be merry, America!  There’s some trouble going on in Burma?  Most of our fellow “citizens” shrugged that off.  Whatever.  Those foreigners are always killing each other over something or other. 

On Sunday morning, some of these football fans and shoppers went to a mega-church and handed some more of their minimum wage dollars to a wealthy evangelist in exchange for a rousing sermon about glorifying Jesus by getting rich.  Then, content that their Christianity would remain safely intact for another week, they settled in at home to watch more football or went shopping again. 

With all of these important activities to pursue, it’s no wonder that most Americans have paid little if any attention to the violent suppression of democracy in Myanmar. Too many of them can’t even summon the decency to give a shit about the suppression of democracy here, so why would they give a shit about democracy in some country they’d never even heard of before?  Besides, they probably told themselves as they fixed a snack that all that fuss those monks were raising before they got arrested and executed is over now and has no impact at all on them or their family.

But Myanmar is not so far away.  It’s closer than most Americans think it is.  Generals are generals, no matter what language they speak when they’re lying.  Oppression is oppression, no matter which leader is subjecting his people to it in the name of national security.  Death is death, it will come for each of us soon enough, whether we are a Buddhist monk in Myanmar, a progressive blogger in America, or a pathological liar who hijacked the Presidency and then hijacked it again to stay in power.

John Donne understood the meaning of death, and left behind some advice for us:

“Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.”

It’s tolling for us and all of humanity in Myanmar.  It’s tolling in Iraq.  It’s tolling in Darfur and Afghanistan and East Timor.  I hope we hear it.  I hope we all hear it very well.  I hope Congress hears it, I hope China hears it, I hope the UN Security Council hears it. 

America’s Commander Guy will never hear that tolling, he’s too busy listening to God’s latest attack plans for Iran and pretending to be concerned about MEE YAN MARR. 

The New Internationalist made some recent observations about Myanmar’s Commander Guy:

The Burmese military junta – with Than Shwe as ‘Number One’ – has proved adept at achieving its only real aim, which is to stay in power. It has done so, in the name of ‘national unity’, by preying genocidally upon the cultural diversity of the country’s 50 million people, reducing them to impoverishment, slave labour, displacement and exile, thereby creating what is arguably the most deranged of all the world’s political regimes.

Here in America, we know a thing or two about deranged political regimes, and could learn a thing or two about courage from the Buddhist monks of Myanmar: 

We could also use a leader like Aung San Suu Kyi:

For the Burmese people, Aung San Suu Kyi represents their best and perhaps sole hope that one day there will be an end to the country’s military repression.  As a pro-democracy campaigner and leader of the opposition National League for Democracy party (NLD), she has spent more than 11 of the past 18 years in some form of detention under Burma’s military regime.

Aung San Suu Kyi didn’t tell the people of her country that she didn’t have enough votes to hold their criminal leader accountable. She never told them that opposing that criminal just wasn’t worth it.  She didn’t say fighting for democracy is only worthwhile as long as you win.  She didn’t take their future off the table, she has sacrificed her own freedom so they might be free someday and live in a democracy.

Stand With the Burmese Protestors

Buddhist monks and nuns are being beaten and murdered in Myanmar.  Aung San Suu Kyi’s life is in danger.  Democracy advocates are being hunted down.  Savage reprisals are underway.  Please do whatever you can to generate public awareness of what General Than Shwe and his brutal regime are doing.  Call your congressmen and senators.  Take action through the links in today’s Myanmar/Burma essays.