By Jared Morgan
Special to the Daily Press

SMC The desks in his classroom were positioned in a circle. Ryan McMillen, like the handful of students arranged around him, held a copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated.”

McMillen’s copy was different — his was worn and the cover didn’t feature Elijah Wood. This book was made into a movie two years ago.

The story follows an ordinary young man who travels to Ukraine to find the truth behind his family’s past.

“This class is quiet,” McMillen said, referring to the students after they exited the classroom.

From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he teaches English 31, or advanced composition, at Santa Monica College. The course is geared toward students majoring in English. But, apparently English isn’t the only subject he gravitates to. This mild mannered college instructor also dabbles in Internet activism.

Like the lead character in Foer’s book, an ordinary educator, McMillen, made a cyber journey to Burma where a major uprising is currently turning the somewhat obscure Asian nation on its head. Instead of a personal journey of self-discovery, McMillen was about to embark on helping to enlighten the masses about a conflict that is currently gripping the human family.

After receiving an e-mail containing a video of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai being gunned down by a Junta soldier in Myanmar, or Burma, McMillen decided to upload it to the iReporter section of CNN’s website.

“I just thought I should do something with it,” he said. “I sat on it for six hours … then decided to upload it. Someone from CNN’s iReporter called me. Later I got contacted by a guy with a British accent, which I guess meant that he was higher up.”

McMillen wasn’t comfortable with putting the Daily Press in touch with his source “for obvious reasons,” he said.

Those reasons involve a government that has a record of committing gross infringements on its citizens’ freedoms. One such citizen, Aung San Suu Kyi, Leader of the National League for Democracy political party, has been detained on and off by Burma’s Junta government since 1989. Suu Kyi, an advocate for nonviolent resistance against the Junta, has won numerous awards including the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award from India and the Noble Peace Prize for her human rights efforts.

The U.N. Security Council, in an Oct. 11 report, stressed the importance of early release for all political prisoners being detained by the government of Burma.

“It also calls on the Government of Myanmar and all other parties concerned to work together toward a de-escalation of the situation and a peaceful solution,” the report stated.

Shortly after McMillen uploaded the video of the Nagai shooting, the government of Burma reportedly cut itself of from the rest of the World Wide Web.

Following recent hikes in Burmese gas prices, citizens rose up in protest.

The Junta, frustrated by the wave of videos being transmitted out of the country from Internet cafes, took measures to shut down the country’s Internet and cell phone service. Several media sources cited McMillen’s act of cyber reporting for the communications blackout, but he feels it was just something he had to do.

“Something happened in translation from the reporter to the editor and I was blamed for shutting down the Internet in Burma,” said McMillen. “It takes a foreigner being killed to shed light on what’s going on over there.”

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