Dalai Lama Receives Human Rights Award

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A few years ago, I went through a period where I was reading a lot of books about Buddhism.  .My two favorite writers were Thich Nhat Hahn a Buddhist monk from Viet Nam who lives in exile in France.  I started reading him because several of his books dealt with Jesus Christ and the Buddha as spiritual brothers.  The other writer is the person that most Americans would think of when thinking of Buddhism, His Holiness the Dalai Lama the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama is in DC this week for a series of meetings.  In spite of his claims of being a big proponent of human rights, President Barack Obama will not be meeting with the Buddhist leader.  The decision came after the Chinese government has encouraged countries not to meet with the leader.  So, Obama, the great appeaser has decided to give in to the wishes of the Chinese rather than do what is right.  It will be the first time since the Dalai Lama began visiting DC that a sitting president has not met with him.

Fortunately, all in DC are not of the same mind as the President.  As much as I loathe just about everything that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stands for, she did present the Dalai Lama with the first Tom Lantos Human Rights Award. So I thank Congress for recognizing the work of the Dalai Lama.   

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