Fear of the Little People is Spreading in Unilateralists
A wonderful observation popped up in a WaPo editorial today, and since lately they've been so few and far between, it seems worth notating.
TWO YEARS ago, a slight, 34-year-old Burmese woman with a heart ailment sued her local mayor for forcing her and her neighbors to help repair municipal roads for no pay. To everyone's shock, in a repressive nation notorious for forced labor, she won her case, under a national law banning compulsory labor, though the law had never been invoked or enforced. But, as Richard C. Paddock of the Los Angeles Times recounted in an article last year, Su Su Nway paid a price: She was soon sentenced to jail for "insulting and disrupting a government official on duty."
Now Su Su Nway, in and out of jails for years for her indomitable spirit, is back on the Burma government list of dangerous people. And she finds that indication of how afraid they are.
"They want to send me to prison because they are afraid of me," Su Su Nway said shortly before her earlier confinement. "I have no responsibility, no power and no position. They plot against a common girl, a disease sufferer, and sue her because they are afraid. If they are afraid like that, our side is winning." The world should join her winning side.
It's bravery from individuals that gave this country its freedom from George III, and that spirit breaks out when the freedom is threatened. The attempt to keep all of us under surveillance is another sign of the fear of us - and shows we're not powerless at all.
As Kevin Hayden wrote at The American Street, "we're the canaries in the current coal mine whose dust has darkened everyone's future".
Grand way to express it, thanks.
TWO YEARS ago, a slight, 34-year-old Burmese woman with a heart ailment sued her local mayor for forcing her and her neighbors to help repair municipal roads for no pay. To everyone's shock, in a repressive nation notorious for forced labor, she won her case, under a national law banning compulsory labor, though the law had never been invoked or enforced. But, as Richard C. Paddock of the Los Angeles Times recounted in an article last year, Su Su Nway paid a price: She was soon sentenced to jail for "insulting and disrupting a government official on duty."
Now Su Su Nway, in and out of jails for years for her indomitable spirit, is back on the Burma government list of dangerous people. And she finds that indication of how afraid they are.
"They want to send me to prison because they are afraid of me," Su Su Nway said shortly before her earlier confinement. "I have no responsibility, no power and no position. They plot against a common girl, a disease sufferer, and sue her because they are afraid. If they are afraid like that, our side is winning." The world should join her winning side.
It's bravery from individuals that gave this country its freedom from George III, and that spirit breaks out when the freedom is threatened. The attempt to keep all of us under surveillance is another sign of the fear of us - and shows we're not powerless at all.
As Kevin Hayden wrote at The American Street, "we're the canaries in the current coal mine whose dust has darkened everyone's future".
Grand way to express it, thanks.
Labels: Democracy, Homeland Security
posted by Ruth at 6:46 AM
1 Comments:
Ha! Personal bravery against the ruling power? In Burma it's commendable, but crushable. In the US, it's reprehensible and ignorable.
jawbone
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