internal war

I went to hear and see the Dalai Lama at Rutgers University last sunday. Some 15 or 20 thousand must have filled their stadium, leaving Tenzin Gyatso to speak to us through the jumbo screen. I believe the university director must have introduced him as the '14th Dalai Lama' nearly ten times, as though we would forget.

He was talking about how he is outright against the death penalty and commented on how we still employ it. However, diplomatically, he wishes to stay aside only as a commentator, saying "i will not interfere in your law."

Many of Tenzin Gyatso's subject matter is about war and killing. He mentioned that some kill at war, and of those, "some are called heroes." This is to suggest that we are not being honest with ourselves, honoring those who serve in Iraq, continually saying that none died in vain. Our war has not been a perfectly honest one. The Administration has been taking many blows in terms of its Homeland Security hierarchy (FEMA director Brown's Katrina response), its campaigning (Tom Delay's indictment), and very importantly to its work in 'timeline-less' work in Iraq.

He also expressed that globally, we countries depend on each other and that "destruction of your enemy is outdated." Whoever hears him may think him to be naïve, but it's important to remember that he has been in exhile in India for over forty years, because bordering China has not wanted to cooperate or even normally meet to discuss relations with Tibet.

As a goal, Gyatso believes in "internal disarmament" before external disarmament. Ultimately he sees the world will abolish nukes in a hundred years, two hundred, or more. It's not clear when, but any sort of physical agreements require people to change their mindsets. We must resolve to pull our minds from waging war. It does make sense that, the "mind cannot function" when the host is clouded with anger and rage. The Dalai Lama was posed, if given the chance, what he would say to a terrorist leader such as Al-Zarqawi. He said that his anger prevents his goals from being fulfilled and that "hatred brings more suffering to [himself]."

These past weeks have literally taken education away from New Orleans, affecting thousands of students. Last week I actually saw one student at my college that was adopted in a policy shared by many institutions to take on the burden of some of the many who need to continue their schooling elsewhere. We have our troubles in the US, but at least we have a responsive education system. It's true that one of the biggest issues raised in this year's NYC Mayoral Election debates was the sickening status our schools; the teachers have rare or unfair contracts and the schools are overpopulated. But at least we have schools. I can't really imagine what kids in Iraq are doing. I know the choice for a few thousand has been to enlist with training camps for suicide bombers.