Today President George Bush signed congressional legislation that awarded Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal, America's top civilian honor. Yesterday the government of Canada named her an honorary Canadian.

Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-democracy activist, is currently under house arrest in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). A Myanmar government official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) yesterday that she was not harmed by the cyclone that ripped through Burma on Saturday, but so far I have seen no corroboration of this report. Current reports say nearly 22,500 people died as a result of the storm.

Ms. Suu Kyi is a heroine of Buddhism as well as of Democracy. When her son Alexander Aris accepted her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in her absence, he said she linked the quest for democracy to Buddhism.,

"To live the full life," she says, "one must have the courage to bear the responsibility of the needs of others … one must want to bear this responsibility." And she links this firmly to her faith when she writes, "...Buddhism, the foundation of traditional Burmese culture, places the greatest value on man, who alone of all beings can achieve the supreme state of Buddhahood. Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth through his own will and endeavour and to help others to realize it." Finally she says, "The quest for democracy in Burma is the struggle of a people to live whole, meaningful lives as free and equal members of the world community. It is part of the unceasing human endeavour to prove that the spirit of man can transcends the flaws of his nature."

Photo Credit: U.S. Department of State