Irony in honoring the Dalai Lama
Re “U.S. honors Dalai Lama,” Oct. 18
How is it that President Bush can thumb his nose at China and award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama (an act I favor) and then chicken out on acknowledging the genocide of Armenians by the Turks during World War I? If truth should not be acknowledged on the basis of time elapsed, then when will we no longer acknowledge the genocide of the Jews? Americans seemingly have already forgotten the shame of genocide directed toward Native Americans.
Genocide should never be dismissed, no matter who it might embarrass, if we are to someday finally embrace the human rights of all who walk the Earth.
Phil Wilt
Van Nuys
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Bush’s honoring of the Dalai Lama is good political theater and very ironic.
The Republican conservative base is dominated by evangelical Christians who believe that the famous Tibetan Buddhist, like all people who do not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal savior, is going to hell.
Robert P. Sechler
Seal Beach
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China was offended when the United States conferred one of its highest civilian awards on the Dalai Lama.
What if the world, to which this holy man is a citizen at large, gets offended with China’s behavior and boycotts the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics?
It would be the ultimate tit-for-tat.
Manuel B. Cagulada
Reseda
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