Let it not be unnoticed

I remember it was in a history class in high school that we were having a discussion about how we often overlook the importance or impact of events in the present. I don't remember the specifics, the history teacher had picked a day in the 20th century when a significant event had taken place, some government had been overthrown, however on the same day some country on the opposite side of the globe had tested a weapon or something...The former event was covered on a large scale and the latter, equally important or may be even more, went unnoticed at the moment these were occuring. I remembered this because of what happened in the last few days.

The Iranian leader spoke at an Ivy League college and on the other side of the world people protested the military over taking their government and oh yea! hal03 came out. Now for those of you who think that the last one mentioned can hardly be compared with the former two... you need to go check out the stats on how many brains are wired to that game as we speak... yes people this is the world you live in ... where at the same time all these unrelated events could be occurring....

Monks in Burma urged citizens to engage in a non-violent protest against the Burmese military, these monks besides their non violent stance are being attacked by the military and killed. It is difficult to get information out of Burma because military is cracking down on the journalists and fabricating figures of casuality to the outside world. I just heard a coverage on NPR over the radio that talked about how monks were actually being killed and arrested. It is a difficult time for the country, what I don't understand is what other countries are doing to help. Unfortunately, it seems India is not supporting the right side, what amazed me and my co-blogger friend was ... isn't India the country where Buddhism originated? Does anyone else know about what other countries are doing about this situation in Burma? Do let us know.

Going back to the Iranian leader, I do not support hatred or extremists, however I do support open dialogue. I think it makes sense to have leaders everywhere talk to people in different countries. That way we will know what they say, when they say it and to some degree be able to judge their character for ourself. That way we won't have CNN telling us what is important and what is not. Many people did not like him coming over here and talking, these are the people who confuse listening to the other side talk with supporting the other side. You are not supporting the opponent when you listen to them, you are only making yourself knowledgeable about who your opponent is.

their basic argument : "Oh, he's gonna come over here and spew hate"
my question: "do you think if we choose to not hear this from him, the hate will simply disappear ?"

Dialogue is important, communication is important and it is most important for leaders. No matter how much we all wish that this guy was not a leader the fact is that he is a leader, he is a leader of a country, a country next to the country where the young men and women of this country are fighting. Why in the world would you NOT want to know what this guy has to say ?

So, these two things happened in the last two days, but I'm sure a lot more happened that I didn't even hear of, a lot more happened that changed some lives somewhere out there, which we probably don't see now. Years from now these two events will be discussed and may be something else along with them something that we have conveniently overlooked..... Let us know if you felt something important went unnoticed.