Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Burma who has been under house arrest for the past fourteen years, is the first person in this project who is living. Which of course means her story is still unfolding. This also means and this I did not expect that I need a kind of faith in order to complete this piece. Shes been absent from much of the lives of her children; she was absent at the death and funeral of her husband. The dictatorship offered her the opportunity to leave the country after he died, but she chose not to, knowing it would be the equivalent of indefinite exile. I find myself doubting that these sacrifices will result in a quantifiable good. Even as I write this, I hate the way it sounds. I am writing out of my fear and faithlessness. I'm trying to be honest. The idea of losing a child or being absent for part of my childrens lives is unbearable to me. I know what it means to grow up with an absent parent. What is unsettling is that I'm convinced my love for my family and children would be a weakness in this kind of situation. The point, however, is that people make such sacrifices hoping their children wont have to.
But brutalities are still being carried out to this day. The dictatorship is still in control, and crushes those who resist. What if she dies, and the dictatorship remains in power, men, women and children still suffering, the rest of the world still watching with pity and inaction? Im not sure I have the faith for this. I know that her sacrifices will be placed on the altar with all sacrifices made on behalf of peace and justice. Therein it will amount to something greater than the sum of its parts. But will that happen in my lifetime? I ask that not because it must happen during my life, but because as long as I am alive, I am somehow implicated.
