Hu Visits - Chesterfield Chills

Chinese President Hu Jintao is in Washington this week to meet with the President and Congress. It's a bit of a slippery slope all this. How do you manage to do business with someone that you have serious moral issues with? One thing that seems to be certain is that we need China and China needs us and it will be better people than myself that will have to sort all this out.

Having nothing at all to do with Hu's visit to Washington, my little town of Chesterfield chills out with an on-going snow fall that has brought beauty and a calm over the usual hustle and bustle. I was trying to figure out how to comment on China's human rights issues especially with respect to Tibet and the Dalai Lama and decided I might be able to combine words of wisdom and the snowy wonderland together.

In 1959 China invaded Tibet and the Dalai Lama fled to India in exile. Today almost six million Tibetans are living under Chinese rule in Tibet, despite being deprived of their spiritual leader's presence, devotion to the Dalai Lama and his message remains at an all-time high.

Hu Jintao is well versed on Tibet, going back to 1988 when as Party Chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region he invoked martial law in the capital city Lhasa and sent in 1,700 of the People's Armed Police to crackdown on the Tibetans. The 14th Dalai Lama is now seventy-five years old and may be ready to retire from his political duties and focus on his spiritual life.

China under the leadership of President Hu is chomping at the bit to make the selection of the 15th Dalai Lama, a selection that would cinch governmental control for the Chinese. Chinese officials portray the Dalai Lama as the single greatest threat to a unified Chinese nation, saying he has "the face of a man and the heart of a beast" - "a wolf in monk's robes." Hmmm...

So this becomes just one more item on President Obama's plate - to see if he can convince Hu Jintao to create the changes necessary to facilitate the return to Tibet by the Dalai Lama. I leave you with the wonder that is Chesterfield this snowy day and the words of the 14th Dalai Lama.

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"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day." ~ Dalai Lama

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive." ~ Dalai Lama 

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." ~ Dalai Lama 

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives." ~ Dalai Lama

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness." ~ Dalai Lama 

"Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life." ~ Dalai Lama

"Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion." ~ Dalai Lama

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