Persecuted: Carrie Prejean and Aung San Suu Kyi?

So unless you’ve been in a coma or on Mars or something like that, you’ve heard the saga of Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA contestant who sparked a huge debate across the country because of her answer to a question about gay marriage during the interview portion of the pageant.

Prejean’s supporters have (repeatedly) claimed that she is being persecuted for her stand against gay marriage based on her, as she described them, Christian beliefs. It’s a point of view that conveniently overlooks a few facts, namely: that Prejean lied, several times, about posing for nearly-nude photographs; violated the terms of her contract with the Miss California pageant by failing to make personal appearances; and violated terms of her contract again by using her Miss California title as a platform for her own political agenda.

Nor have Prejean’s supporters explained how exactly she’s being persecuted – usually ‘persecuted’ means that you’re paying some kind of price for your actions. It’s hard though to see what price Carrie Prejean is paying. Despite multiple violations of her contract, she’s kept her Miss California title. And thanks to her gay marriage answer, she’s become a minor celebrity, even guest-hosting an hour of Fox News’ morning program – now, do you even know the name of the woman who won the Miss USA pageant?

If you really want to see persecution in action, then look no further than Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. Her crime? Winning an election back in 1990 that should have made her the country’s Prime Minister. But Burma’s powerful military decided that they wanted nothing to do with democracy, so they stepped in and put Suu Kyi under custody, where she has remained for the past 19 years, as perhaps the world’s most famous political prisoner.

But now thanks to the actions of one self-styled ‘peace activist’/garden-variety nutbag, Suu Kyi could now very well wind up in a real prison. A few weeks ago, an American, John Yettaw, decided to swim across the lake on the edge of Suu Kyi’s property and barged into her house to, according to John Yettaw, interview her. Suu Kyi, fearing the reaction of Burma’s junta, begged him to leave – for two days.

In the end, it still wound up costing Suu Kyi. The junta found out about the ‘visit’, and accused Suu Kyi of violating the terms of her house arrest, putting her on trial, again.

So if Carrie Prejean and her supporters want to see what persecution really looks like, they should learn about Suu Kyi, then come talk to us about the persecution of Ms. Carrie. Or better yet, don’t.