A Belated Happy Birthday...

... to a real hero!

How could I have forgotten this? I meant to ask you yesterday, Bush, to join me in wishing a Happy 60th Birthday to Aung San Suu Kyi, that incredibly gutsy woman over there in Myanmar who for years has led a lonely, stubborn battle against the ruling junta of generals in that country. “Happy” might not be quite the word for the occasion, though as a practising Buddhist and meditator (as I understand it,) she will surely subscribe to a different idea of “happiness” than most of the rest of us. Under house arrest for most of the past dozen years, all she has going for her is the power and determination of her mind. With not the slightest access to the people who regard her as their unquestioned leader, she still manages to be a commanding presence amongst them--and in the rest of the world. With no access to weapons and not the slightest interest in using them, she maintains a steadfast, silent, and implacable opposition to those who keep her imprisoned in her own home, and who attempted to have her assassinated when she was last allowed to leave it. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she was forced to allow her British husband to die of cancer without her comfort and support, since she was not permitted out of her country, nor he permitted in. She must have had to accept enormous pain and sadness in her life.

What a model for us, Bush! I’d rate her up there with the Dalai Lama as the true moral leader of her people, who manages to retain her dignity and her equanimity in the face of continuing violence, injustice, and abuse. If this spiritual and political heritage of Mahatma Ghandi is still alive in the world today, there’s hope for our species. I’m afraid that, with all your weapons, all your posturing of power and your hot-air talk of democracy, you can’t begin to hold a candle to this woman. So, even if we are a day late, at least help me light the candles on her metaphorical cake.

I can’t leave you today without a mention of that little, two-inch piece at the bottom of page 17 of the Sunday New York Times. It seems the Pentagon has announced the award of a $30 million contract to a Halliburton subsidiary “to build a 220-bed prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” The job, says the Times, “is part of a larger contract that could be worth up to $500 million through 2010.” So far, only a single voice of protest—-that of Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, who dared to impugn Halliburton as the “scandal-plagued former employer” of your Cheney. I'm with him.

Will more voices be heard on this matter, Bush? Or will the story remain buried in the back of a few newspapers, while we all get on with the important business of Michael Jackson and the Runaway Bride? What’s your guess?