SECOND INNING It is a rare thing for me to feel a strong urge to write about the same subject for a second day but just such an urge hit me after doing yestrday's piece concerning Aung San Suu Kyi the Burmese activist. It was, and is a complusive urge, not so much to reveal facts about her life and work ,but to help provide Americans – the young people, especially, with symbols of certainty and position of potential points of achievment which will create new leaders.
Perhaps yuu, too, were among those of us who saw President George W. Bush on TV throwing the first ball of the opening season for the new D.C. team named the "Nationals". We haven't had a picture of a president doing that since Nixon in the time when the "Senators" were still around. The pictures of President Bush tossing out the first ball mark the start of the basball season for millions of Americans - culminating in the World Series games in October.
Those pictures are symbols of good sportsmanship, fair play and healthful enjoyment of a sports activity.
It is important that we, the older age group, make sure there is no generational gap in existence which might delay or prevent those who follow us from undertanding the difficulties faced by Aung San Suu Kyi and other such patriots around the world.
We see such symobolism in the images which appear onour coinage, on our postage stamps, and even reflected in many of the popular songs we sing.
They take on many forms: a bison, a spinning wheel, a fishing net, flags, banners, signs, even advertising slogans and sell lines, rocky peaks of rugged mountains, swampy bayous... a endless stream of a the real America we
know and love. Most of all, perhaps, we have the example of dedicated man and women who have lived their lives to safeguard our general principles of free government for
all time.
Aung San Suu Kyi is one such person... one such symbol.
A.L.M. April 16, 2005 [c347wds]
