The title of the comic is “The Rose Is A Bullet”, mentally replace the rose with a bullet and it gets much easier to understand the strip and the dark humor behind it.

I disagree that being called names isn’t persecution, it is….it’s just not BRUTAL persecution.

I’d like to think that the message is, we need to understand the levels of persecution and respond accordingly.

Has anyone else mentioned the knife behind the guy whose holding the rose?

Pretty self-explanatory.

20°47′N, 97°02′E is in Burma, a military controlled country. I can imagine it has lots of unjust persecutions and executions, since it’s military controlled, but I don’t know that for sure.

At first I thought it was an euphorism for “Wake up and smell the roses”.

But the more I look at it, I think I agree with the idea that the man had the rose as an “exotic pet” and he is now being “brutally persecuted” for it.

Well, that or the burmese commander is just plain nuts. XD

I agree with the interpretation that the last panel is illustrating the statement, “Oh, your persecution is so horrid, and I suppose in Burma they give roses to dissidents.” And really, no, they don’t give them roses, they shoot them with bullets. “Rose” is sarcasm for “bullet”… if that makes any sense.