If the cyclone wasn’t bad enough, now the Burmese people have to suffer the double tragedy of lack of aid. It isn’t that the aid isn’t out there, it’s that their own government won’t give it to them.

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Who was Mildred Loving, you ask? Mildred Loving was one of the most important civil rights activists during the 1960s though she had no wish to become an activist at all. In 1958, Mildred Loving and her husband Richard were arrested for getting married. Yes, married. Mildred was black and Richard was white, and their marriage violated the law in the state of Virginia.

Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia was a watershed in civil rights law. In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court decided Loving. In a 9 to 0 ruling, the Court declared Virginia law unconstitutional — no state had the right to deny marriage on the basis of race. Only 41 years ago were people given the right to marry whomever they wanted in the United States.

Mrs. Loving died of pneumonia this past Friday, survived by children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a historic decision granting freedom to many.

Various news outlets have been running the story about a Duke University student named Grace Wang who made the “mistake” of trying to get pro-China and pro-Tibet protestors to sit down and talk about their differences rather than simply shout slogans (and possibly throw fists) at each other. She stepped in when she saw roughly a dozen pro-Tibet protestors being swarmed by a crowd of several hundred Chinese.

For her efforts, Ms. Wang has been labeled a “traitor” to her country (China) and her parents (who live in China) have had to go into hiding to avoid being killed.

What is going on here?

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