NCR Today

The Dalai Lama spoke at the University of Maryland in College Park on Tuesday. I believe there are several words of wisdom worth pondering in the Dalai Lama's remarks.

Consider:

"Sit down. No formality! We are the same. The way we are born. The way we die."

"When I look at you, if I think I am Tibetan, I am Buddhist, I am Dalai Lama -- nonsense. That kind of thing leads to problems."

I was at a march and rally Thursday* to raise the wage for fast-food workers. It's the beginning of a union-organizing campaign, and at least 50 of my old friends from other peace and justice campaigns were there. With us were hundreds of young people, black and white, chanting vigorously, "You can't survive on seven-thirty-five." (The minimum wage in the state of Missouri is $7.35.)

We carried signs that read "I am a man" and "I am a woman." A couple of my friends and a few strangers asked me what the sign meant.

A friend of mine got a letter from a prisoner in Delano, Calif. My friend is 93, active and generous. She answered the first letter, but doesn't know what to do now.

The letter is marked "Inmate Indigent Mail," so I suppose the state of California paid for it. The inmate was at risk of a 42-year sentence, but he says he put himself in God's hands and the prosecutor offered him release in March 2014.