Today President Bush and the National Security Advisor met with the Dalai Lama in The White House residence to discuss Tibet. The President commended the Dalai Lama for his commitment to nonviolence and said he would encourage dialogue with the Chinese Government. The President and the Dalai Lama agreed that strong and constructive U.S-China relations is important. The Dalai Lama has also met with Secretary of State Powell, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Paula Dobriansky from the State Department.
San Francisco. Its been twenty years since Jim Jones and Jonestown, Guyana. A large photograph is mounted on the fourth floor near the Board of Supervisors meeting room. There is a series of photographs of Jones in the exhibit called “Days of Darkness”.
The photos are of about 900 people who will die in a couple of hours including Congressman Leo Ryan and Greg Robinson the photographer who took a lot of the photographs.
“You can’t believe that one guy can be that powerful, that he can get so many people to kill themselves” said Claes Ostlund a resident of Stockholm who is trying to make sense of how this evil was possible in San Francisco.
Patty Moran, a Democratic Party activist during the time of Jones, had worked for Harvey Milk and George Moscone who were murdered a week after the tragedy in Jonestown states “I can understand why people here wouldn’t like it, having to look at that every day”.
“…Is there some darkness at the heart of this beautiful city, or is it just that San Francisco welcomes anyone charismatic who preaches social justice?” asks the San Francisco Examiner Columnist Rob Morse.
To answer Rob Morse’s question about the darkness in the heart of the city of San Francisco that would allow a fog to blind the residents to the evil before them, see this teaching by Prophet.tv’sBuilding the Warrior series.