Two birthdays, two days apart, could hardly have conveyed more different messages. Donald Trump merged his 80th with America’s 250th to stage an unprecedented pageantry featuring cage fights, racist imagery and displays of military hardware. Standing before the granite mount Trump wants his likeness carved into, he railed against imagined “communist” enemies. A day earlier, 52-year-old Lobga Rangzen immolated himself in New York to remind the world of Tibet, which China is forcibly remaking in its statist image. Today, on the Dalai Lama’s 91st birthday, the familiar message of compassion and altruism once again resonates worldwide. It’s not difficult to decide which vision we would want the global citizens of tomorrow to follow.
