Yes, the Common Council got a tremendous opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama and hear some private words from him. An amazing opportunity. For each of us, probably for different reasons. I really struggled to decide if I should go. I don’t practice his religion, but I personally really wanted the opportunity to meet him, but that seemed like a really selfish reason to go. I also didn’t think it was fair that I got to go and so many others did not. But in the end, I decided it would be disrespectful not to go. I ultimately justified it in my mind, because I view him as a political leader. And of course, what he had to say to us, was just that, political.
He reminded us how fortunate we are in the United States that we are a model around the world for democracy, freedom and liberty. And how we have values in place like freedom of speech and freedom of the media that protect us. And he used scary words that we don’t usually use in polite society like oppression, communism, capitalism and totalitarianism. And he talked about China and Tibet.
No matter how hard people tried to say that what we did as a council by recognizing the Dalai Lama was not a political issue, it was political. To treat it as anything but, is ludicrous. I couldn’t help wonder what my colleagues were thinking as the Dalai Lama was speaking about his political thoughts about China and Tibet. After all, this is the guy who said if we have a Green Party in the United States, he wants to join. And his values and political leanings were so far from that of some of my colleagues. And, this certainly wasn’t about “basic services”. The fact that 17 (of 20) Council Members showed up (Bruer, Sanborn and Verveer not present) and the resolution was unanimous when we voted signals that sometimes straying from basic services might be acceptable – at least when they get to meet a great world leader. The whole experience was humbling and fantastic and surreal.
The experience ended up being a little extra special for me because when we got done meeting the Dalai Lama and all of us council members were leaving the room, a nun approached me and asked to talk to me. She shared with me that when she moved to Madison she was flipping through the channels and saw me arguing a point at a meeting and after listening to me, she had decided that she had moved to the right place. I felt very honored that she had shared that with me, it was very sweet.
As I was leaving with some of my colleagues we were noticing how peaceful the ground were, so unlike when other large groups of people gather. I then ran into a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in a while and we got to catch up a little – he was so happy for me that I had gotten to exchange scarves with the Dalai Lama. And next is when we ran into Pat Schneider from the Cap Times. She kept asking me questions, but I didn’t want to comment. I was still soaking in the moment and there really weren’t words for what I was able to experience.
It took me three days to post this, because meeting the Dalai Lama was a very personal experience and anything I write just doesn’t do the experience justice. There is much to say about the hypocrisy of my colleagues and their denial that what we did was a political act, but that all kind of just fades away in the experience of the day. Now, if only we can remember some of his comments and teachings as we govern the City, it would make our whole community better, but I’m afraid that may have already faded away as well.
