Blog for Burma

Today has been designated "Support Burma: International Bloggers' Day." I don't have anything insightful or eloquent to say about Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, trade relations with China, etc. All I want to say is this: I've been following the events in Rangoon with great interest since the monks first started marching. That's because, in my mind, Burma has gone from being a slightly obscure place prone to dramatic name changes, to a place with people who are my neighbors. And if you live in Oklahoma City they're your neighbors too. If you live in El Paso, ditto. Same for Indianapolis. And Charlottesville. Families who fled their homes ten or twenty years ago, mothers who have given birth to and raised children in camps in Thailand, young men who have hidden secretly in tiny apartments in Kuala Lumpur, are now a part of America. They are settling here--working, paying taxes, sending their kids to school, shopping at Wal-Mart. It's pretty easy to change the channel, to click on another link or to turn the dial when news about violence and oppression comes on. But that's gotten a harder for me to do since getting to know our Burmese clients. They're my neighbors. And yours. And I can't forget what Jesus said about how we should treat our neighbors.