Burma is important. The Burma is Important project.

Welcome to the Burma is important Project.
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1950: The invasion of Tibet.
1988: First pro-democracy protests in Burma are crushed.
1990: The first detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.
2007: The birth of Burma's "Saffron Revolution."

What's going on in Burma is frightening and all too familiar. It's a tale of bravery and uprising against what is, for the time being, a government-in-power that is so lacking in compassion that it has stooped to murdering some of compassion's most dedicated proponents.

Think about that. They're killing Buddhist monks. They're ransacking and destroying Buddhist temples.

I'm not saying that a monk's life is or is not more valuable than the life of someone who's not a monk. I have no idea, and it's besides the point: no murder is without its own significant horror, and its own karma. Days like these, oppression and suffering sure seem to be equal opportunity miseries. And who's to say that the loss of a temple is more crushing or more untenable than the loss of a home?

But there is an extra factor here, one which shouldn't be ignored even if you only value Buddhism-on-the-Whole just the teensiest bit: some significant parts of Burmese Buddhism (and therefore of Buddhism-on-the-Whole) are being damaged. Erased.

Some of its adherents -- whose presence has increasingly nurtured and inspired and emboldened their oppressed nation's laypeople -- are being removed via jailings and killings. Just try to imagine of the kinds of contributions that the countless monks and nuns of Burma have made to their people, to the world, and to the Dharma over the years. The impact that their collective and individual presence has had is incalculable.

And some of that's just . . . gone?

It's looking that way from what we're seeing in the news. But even that has been compromised. As of 9/29/07, Burma's internet connections have been disabled by the junta. Very little is getting out of Burma via the web, so cell-phone footage of the protests has slowed down. It makes you grateful for all those newspeople who still can get to a story and tell it, the old fashioned way. (Sometimes, accurately!)

Burma has of course seen similarly explosive times. This time, though, many more in the media -- and many more good, regular people like you and your friends -- seem to know: Burma is important. The injustice and loss there is beyond comprehension, and needs to stop. And: if it can happen in a place that has traditionally revered its robed keepers of the Dharma, just think how easily it could happen in a place that hasn't.

Despite serious limitations (no web access; trying to gather information in a volatile and dangerous arena) there has been so far an almost surprising amount of coverage, much of it seemingly well-informed. (You'll find some pertinent links in the upper-right corner of the Horse's homepage.) The media cares about Burma. People all around the world care about it. Laura Bush cares about it.

But not everybody does. Tell them. Put a Burma is important image on your blog, your website, your MySpace page, your Facebook page.

We've made a few Burma is important images already, and so have our friends. We're including them here so that you can take and use them if you like them. If you want to make your own, do -- by all means. Start a flickr group of your own. Blow 'em up and print 'em up and make t-shirts. The important thing is that each of us acts, in any ways in which we're able and inspired.

If you do make a Burma is important image, I hope you'll email it to The Worst Horse. That way, we'll be able to add it here (and maybe feature it on our homepage), so that others can take it, share it, and get inspired by it. We can link to and credit you. (Or not. Just state your preference in your email.) Here's the address:

We'll post such images until doing so becomes unmanageable.

Hopefully there won't even be enough time for that to happen. Maybe the world's outrage will grow. Maybe justice will be served, at least in that all of the immediate killing and division and suffering currently going on in Burma will be put to some kind of palpable end. And maybe, either way, Burma will heal. They sure have a lot of extraordinarily inspiring human beings there, don't they? Let's help them.

Imagine what a freed -- or freer -- Burma could be like.

_/|\_
Rod Meade Sperry
theworsthorse.net
9.29.07

FREE BURMA. FREE TIBET. FREE ALL BEINGS.

Images for the Burma is important Project: