Sunday Gleanings: the Olympic Handshake

From Times Online

August 10, 2008:

At least five people were killed and several more were critically injured in a series of bomb explosions in China's far west region of Xinjiang, in what looks increasingly like a concerted bombing campaign by Muslim separatists to coincide with the Beijing Olympics.

I just joined a global handshake, beginning with the Dalai Lama in London and going all around the world to the Beijing Olympics.

In a way, this is a follow-up to my last post: It is for the People. My thoughts that the Olympics are for the people and not the governments of the world have not changed. It is most appropriate that we activists put aside our political agenda for the time of the Olympics and allow the people of the world to celebrate these Olympics with joy and in peace. Too often activists’ messages in regard to the Chinese government and its policies on Tibet, Burma and Darfur are couched in ways that are too easily interpreted as being attacks on the people of China.

Then, this morning, I received a email from Avaaz.org, a global web movement with a straightforward mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want:

We've decided to take the moment back with a powerful, unambiguous message of peace, friendship and dialogue—the Olympic Handshake. The handshake began with the Dalai Lama, passing through the streets of London, now it's gone online where all of us can join in—help the handshake travel toward Beijing, where our message will be delivered through a big Olympic media campaign before the closing ceremonies. Join the handshake, and see yourself and others as it goes around the globe!

The original handshake in London created a human chain handshake connecting the Dalai Lama at the Royal Albert Hall to the Chinese Embassy on Portland Place. I wonder why I did not think of following the way of peace of the Dalai Lama? I wonder why the activists who choice to use demonstrations, words of hate, boycotts, and bombs in attempts to intimidate then government of China not think of following the way of peace of the Dalai Lama?

Now, the way is clear to me: the way of the Dalai Lama, the way of the Olympic Handshake: