Some quick bits

I’ve been AWOL for a while, so I’ve missed any chance I had of talking about the Dalai Lama’s talk Wednesday. I’ll sum it up succinctly ? it was a real learning experience for me, and I’m definitely glad I went. If you haven’t already, check out Tricia’s article and the video we have up from his talk at the State Theater.

Not to continue on this Dalai thing, but he’s due to get a Congressional Gold Medal at the U.S. Capitol, which I’ve hear is a pretty big deal (”[Congress'] highest expression of national appreciation”). Unfortunately, China’s pissed. The NYT hedline of the AP story says China’s “warning” against it, the BBC says they’re “condeming” it, and CNN’s AP hed says they are “protesting” it. Very interesting: The BBC says this is “the first time a sitting president will appear in public” with the Dalai Lama.

I could understand China’s stance if this Dalai Lama hadn’t spent so much time in the West. The fact that he’s so well known outside of China and Tibet undermines their idea of this being the “internal affairs of China,” as Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. But now I’m stepping on The Spectrum’s toes.

The other thing I was going to talk about before I get back to the books (and then a few days unplugged) is our local racism issue that’s going on. The Ithaca Journal published an article today about differing accounts of an Oct. 10 meeting that discussed the matters of punishment related to two students (one black, one white) at Ithaca High School. ISH principal said it wasn’t true that a white student admitted to different treatment at that meeting. I don’t think The Ithacan had anybody there to report, so at this point it appears to be a he-said she-said, of course with one party being the leader of IHS.

The Journal also has an editorial telling us what we pretty much already know: the Ithaca City School District has to get back to learning, and everybody needs to help. It reminds those who are protesting that their views have been heard, and we need to let the process work. Maybe I’m a little skeptical of the process, and though the Journal advocates for the Community Dispute Resolution Center to step in, I’m not sure what can be truly done in the meantime for the Board besides acquiesce to some of their critics. Truce isn’t the right word here.

Hopefully fellow blogger Aaron Munzer can step in with some of his own commentary on this subject. He’s been following this topic a little more closely than I have, so he can probably lay it out a bit better than I can.

Back to the books, and I’ll catch you on the other side of fall break.