China has been getting away with human rights abuses in Tibet and other parts of the world for too long. With the recent protests in the streets of Lhasa and the crackdown and murdering of innocent civilians and monks, it has become evident that the governments and people of the free world must stand up with Tibet and its people and demand their freedom.

I am not Buddhist or Tibetan, but I believe that all people have the right to self-determination.

China invaded its peaceful neighbour. It has set up a system of apartheid that subjects Tibetans to control by the minority Han Chinese.

China has oppressed Tibetan religion, culture, and language. It has branded the Dalai Lama -- a peaceful man who believes that Tibet should remain in China, but as a democratic autonomous region, much like Hong Kong -- as a divisive force who wants to destroy the Chinese people.

It has been nearly 58 years since China invaded Tibet and began its genocide. It is time that we all stand with one voice against this horrendous injustice.

With the Beijing Olympics approaching, it is the perfect time to let the Chinese government know that the world will no longer turn a blind eye.

I encourage all those who believe that China should no longer get away with its human rights abuses in Tibet and elsewhere to join the campaign for a free Tibet. Fly the Tibet flag or hang off your balcony or whatever, write your Member of Congress, or Senator and tell them that Tibet should be free.  I also encourage everyone to turn the tv off when it comes to the Beijing Olympics.  How can we expect to have freedom if we do not defend those who want it but do not have it?  Free Tibet!

"We want to say to China, 'We thought that the Olympic Games would help you improve your human rights record," Tutu said. "We still hope... But what we are saying to the heads of state, to President George Bush, is, 'For goodness sake, don't go to the Beijing games... for the sake of our children, for the beautiful people of Tibet. Don't go!'"

link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg i?f=/c/a/2008/04/08/BAAS101V1O.DTL&t sp=1

On a day that we learn that the Olympic torch was extinguished 3 times in Paris due to the efforts of pro-Tibet demonstrators, Hillary Clinton has released a statement calling on President Bush to boycott the Olympics opening ceremonies (via e-mail):

The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership.  These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China.  At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.

I encourage the Chinese to take advantage of this moment as an opportunity to live up to universal human aspirations of respect for human rights and unity, ideals that the Olympic games have come to represent.

Americans will stand strong in support of freedom of religious and political expression and human rights.  Americans will also stand strong and root for the success of American athletes who have worked hard and earned the right to compete in the Olympic Games of 2008.

You'll notice that she stops well short of calling for a boycott of the games altogether, a position Nancy Pelosi shares:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not want the United States to boycott the Beijing Olympics, but she says that President Bush should consider skipping the opening ceremony.

"I think boycotting the opening ceremony, which really gives respect to the Chinese government, is something that should be kept on the table," the California Democrat told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts in an interview today. "I think the president might want to rethink this later, depending on what other heads of state do."

So far only German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will skip the opening ceremonies, but her spokesman insists it's unrelated to the unrest in Tibet.

This issue is bound to get much more coverage here in the US as the torch arrives here this week and considering the next stop in the torch's relay -- San Francisco -- it's bound to be snuffed out quite a few more times before it leaves.

I'll update once Senator Obama weighs in on the issue, as I expect he will.

Today we remember how loved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was, and is. But we forget how hated he was during his lifetime. We forget the awful slip of the tongue that some employed to belittle him and call him "coon" instead of "King". We forget the constant death threats, the government surveillance.

We forget that some people's first reaction upon hearing Dr. King was shot was one of relief, not grief.

But to get an insight into that hate all one has to do is peruse today's headlines and see the level of vitriol hurled against the Dalai Lama by the Chinese government.

"I sympathise with the Tibetan cause. This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle. I abhor violence in any form," Bhutia told the Times of India newspaper.

link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/73 23803.stm

Baichung Bhutia, an Indian footballer, is making headlines across Asia and the world by making this statement and refusing to carry the Olympic torch across India later this month.

This is the power of one.

Where governments fall short in decrying injustice, it remains for all of us, regardless of religion, or ethnicity, or politics, to stand up and let our voices be heard.

In one of those synchroncities that sometimes occur in life, shortly before I began to hear about the current unrest in Tibet, I had begun to read a book called The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings, edited by Rajiv Mehrotra and published by Penguin Books. The book is a compilation of essays and lectures on Buddhism by the Dalai Lama. It is a relatively thin book, under 300 pages, but I have yet to finish it a couple of weeks later, because each of the essays in the book is so full of meaning and deserving of further thought that I cannot read too much of it at once without stopping to absorb and ponder it.

I am not a Buddhist. I am someone who has a great deal of interest in spiritual questions about the actual nature of reality, but because of a questioning mind I have been unable thus far to accept any religion. As such, I am by no means an expert on this subject, but I want to convey some sense of what I believe is the deep importance of preserving the Tibetan culture. I have the impression that many Americans are unfamiliar with that culture and think of Tibet as far away and unimportant to them. I want to express why I think it is imperative that we support Tibet.

The vote was before the Senate.  The Majority Leader was leading the floor vote.  The issue was whether or not to reward China with increased trade so soon after a major political repression.  Something you missed in the news about Tibet?  No this was the first time, what made Tibet possible, and told the Chinese government that shooting unarmed protesters and running over them with tanks was okay.  Tiananman Square, 1989, and I remember it like it was yesterday.  

See, no one thought that with the eyes of the world's media upon it, the Chinese could do such a thing. We know violent repressions are nothing new in this world, in fact it's a way of doing business in many places.  This was different.  ABC, NBC, the New York Times and every other paper in the world was working with the idealistic Beijing University students who had organized the mass demonstration for a more equitable distribution of the recent economic boom, which was being stolen by party bosses, the business class connected with the party bosses, and the upper-level bureaucracy.  There were rumors of the army about to be called out to "restore order," but they wouldn't dare.  These students were the next generation, the promise that the Chinese government might someday join the ranks of civilized governments.  They quoted Thomas Jefferson, they built a statue reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty.  Democracy was on the march in places like Berlin and Romania.  They believed we lived in a new day in which the world would not let this happen.  Would take care of them and erupt in outrage if the Chinese government tried to do things the old-fashioned way.

Which they did.  They threw the foreign press out, abruptly sealed off the city, brought in tanks and truckloads of soldiers', and told the students to disperse or else.  

I still have the moving photos from the book "Children of the Dragon," showing students pleading with soldiers in their trucks not to fire on them, to join them as comrades, handing them flowers.  I can see in my mind perfectly the haunted looks in some of the soldiers faces.  

They were mowed down with machine guns and run over with tanks.  I held a picture of a crushed bicycle once before the motorcade of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who came to power in the wake of Tiananman, when he was welcomed many years later by the president of Harvard Larry Summers, as it passed through Harvard Square and a crush of human rights protesters.  Zemin was in town at the end of a state visit with Bush Senior.  Bill Clinton outdid Bush when he was in power, and gave Zemin a state visit which included the honor accorded only to the fewest international leaders, a 21-gun salute.

But most especially I remember the year just after the Tiananman Square Massacre, when it was being debated whether to grant China Most Favored Nation trade status, in the US Senate.  It was still unclear whether or not the Chinese government would be welcomed into the ranks of civilized nations so soon after Tiananman Square.  Most of the Democrats were against it or had serious qualms, and the Bush Senior administration was pushing for it.  Many people couldn't believe we were even talking about this so soon after the pathetic images of bodies in Tiananman Square and flattened tents had exited the country through brave protesters using the new technology of the fax machine, so that the world knew what was happening.

With the fate of the bill unclear, I remember, Senator Kerry, that you stepped forward with a compromise deal to grant China MFN, rather than fighting like hell against these butchers getting away with this.  The movement against MFN might have picked up steam and a statement might have been made to the Chinese government: No, this is not okay.  Instead, I remember very clearly, you said a compromise bill with a few conditions, like periodic review, was better than the Republicans getting the whole enchilada, since you said they had the votes.  But we didn't know that.  Instead of digging in and making the Republicans explain to outraged Americans why China was being rewarded, keeping them on the hot-seat since the Republicans' own constituents found this revolting, you bailed them out.  It had to be a Democrat who broke ranks, to give political cover, and you were it.  I remember just how it went down.

I passed out flyers in front of your office in government center asking people to call you in protest, and one guy said he walked right into your office and slapped it on your receptionists' desk.  Did you ever get that?

I worked for your campaign before that, and much, much later, I supported your campaign against Bush because it was my patriotic duty to dislodge the man who made premeditated war on Iraq.  

So I guess I came around, eventually.  But I remember.  Oh yes, I remember.  We wore black armbands that day, June 5th, 1989, and I saw some women crying listening to the news reports and the radio.  They were killing the students.  The young beautiful, people we saw dancing in Tiananman Square celebrating their ability to bring good change to their nation, and out of sheer youthful exuberance.  

Now China does whatever it wants to Tibetans, and still gets the Olympics.  Because long ago, they were told it was OK.  
 

In the midst of China's carefully stage-managed PR tour with select western journalists, a small group of Tibetan monks seizes the moment:

The outburst by a group of 30 monks in red robes came as the journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, were being shown around the Jokhang Temple -- one of Tibet's holiest shrines -- by government handlers in Lhasa.

"Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!" yelled one young Buddhist monk, who started to cry.

snip

"They want us to crush the Dalai Lama and that is not right," one monk said during the 15-minute outburst.

"This had nothing to do with the Dalai Lama," said another.

link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h5Z6b JwtN_roGSIUQiQnfbf2NkhgD8VLNFBG0