The Case For Right
By Dean Robbins JGSM '11
Issue date: 11/2/09 Section: Perspectives
Behind these words is the clear connection between the symbolic celebrity of the Dalai Lama and the values which he represents. The contrast of what the Dalai Lama represents, and the political danger he represents to China, should not be viewed only in the context of the Tibet debate, but rather seen as the difference between two competing fundamental philosophies, one of which we share. This difference is a commodity created and traded by President Obama when he chooses to not meet with the Dalai Lama to appease China.
The Obama administration missed a unique opportunity to show bold moral leadership in meeting with the Dalai Lama, not as a symbolic gesture, but rather in refusing to exchange just principles for something ambiguous, even if the gains seem more immediate and are for the same purpose. The former choice has always proven in time to have the greatest effect for the long term, as Abraham Lincoln so profoundly remarked before he became President in his 1859 Cooper Union address, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
The Obama administration missed a unique opportunity to show bold moral leadership in meeting with the Dalai Lama, not as a symbolic gesture, but rather in refusing to exchange just principles for something ambiguous, even if the gains seem more immediate and are for the same purpose. The former choice has always proven in time to have the greatest effect for the long term, as Abraham Lincoln so profoundly remarked before he became President in his 1859 Cooper Union address, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
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