BURMA-MYANMAR.  Several people are reluctant to travel to Burma because of its very oppressive government.  I was one of those people.  For many years we did not do groups to Burma at all.  Then I met our guide in Rangoon, an articulate, delightful young man, whose father has been imprisoned for 15 years by this government.  He said to me:  "If groups like yours don't come, we will then be even more cut off from the world.  Please don't boycott our whole country because of our government.  That will isolate us even more."  Ever since that conversation, we have been taking groups to Burma. 

The tragedy of Burma is now unfolding on the world's stage.  This heinously oppressive government has kept these smiling, deeply religious, politically naive people down long enough.   The monks who are revered, are on the march, by the thousands.  The Burmese people are forming a human chain around them so that the military can't get to them, but there have been some fatalities already.  Imagine, they are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the monks and bring about change in that horrid government. The monks are determined to have peaceful demonstrations.  How long the government will allow that will be interesting to watch.  And in the wings, under house arrest for the last decades, is Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the pro-democracy movement, and the winner of the presidential elections way back when, before the military took over the country.   She was never allowed to take office, but now the world is watching.

Hopefully, matters will be resolved by December, when we have a group scheduled, over the holiday period.  Hopefully, the voice of the people will be heard and they will win out, without too many fatalities.  If it is peaceful, we need to support this amazing country, and these wonderful people.

May I add: Americans talk all the time about how those who have served in the military have made sacrifices to allow us our freedom. What we forget is that we've always been able to do that on someone elses' soil. We don't know what it is like to leave home one morning and stand in front of armed militias, swallowing our fear, trying to end a despotic rule, and seeing others nearby shot dead in the street. We don't understand having to guard every word, because the person in the next booth over at the restaurant may be an informer. We don't grasp losing a spouse, parent or child because they just don't come home, ever again, and never knowing why or how or where they were 'disappeared' by the government.

Everyone should have it so good.