"Radical Buddhist Movement Tests a Multiethnic City's History of Tolerance." New York Times
I do not want to be tolerated.
I want to be valued for the unique contribution I make.
I do not want you to be kind to me.
I want you to be more robust because of me.
Beneath the surface of tolerance
intolerance resides restlessly,
anxious to burst into fear, hate, and destruction.
No warm-up needed.
Lift the iron fist that has suppressed it
- whether in the Balkans or Myanmar -
and there it is,
ready to do its damage
as if it has never been away.
Buddhists as oppressors?
Loving, mindful, prayerful, peaceful, tolerant Buddhists.
Not possible,
yet there it is,
Buddhists with their “others” – Panthay, Rohingya –
foreign, foul, unclean, dangerous, corrupting.
Not the real people.
How vulnerable we are.
One articulate and demented hater
pierces the veil of tolerance,
pursuing the "purity" solution,
unleashing the mindless murderous intolerance in us all.
Yes, yes! Purify!
Suppress, exclude, destroy.
Were it not for our collusion,
these demented haters
would find their rightful places
on street corners and marketplaces,
clad in reeking rags,
ranting and raving,
alone in their mad impotence.
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