Yesterday the Dalai Lama accepted the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can give to a civilian.

His speech and the speeches of others at the ceremony reemphasize that he is not a “splittist,” as Beijing claims, but simply a crusader for peace. He restated that it is not independence he is after, but actual autonomy, something the “Tibet Autonomous Region” utterly lacks. He thanks the American people for their support, and is rather politic in thanking the Bushies for their “support of religious freedom” (heehee, I don’t think he’s been reading the US news much…).

Beijing, of course, threw a little tantrum about “splittists” and “interfering in China’s internal affairs” and “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people.” Um, first of all, even a redneck like me knows that if you want people to admire your lawn, you need to clean it up. If Beijing treated its people like people, we might not be so concerned about its internal affairs. Secondly, how many times does the Dalai Lama have to say, in public, in the company of powerful foreign leaders, that he is no longer seeking Tibetan independence before you will acknowledge it?! Just because you say things you do not mean doesn’t mean everyone does. The Dalai Lama sees that you are too petulant and ignorant to think about Tibetan freedom, and he has tried to compromise, and still you can’t take it. Finally, I doubt most of the Chinese people have time to have their feelings hurt by the activities of a religious figure they probably know little about, what with the time it requires to make all those wonderful lead-based Barbie dolls and the coal-smoke pollution with which you clog their lungs and the lack of freedom of expression and thought and all. Get off it, Beijing. We all see through you.

Congratulations to the Dalai Lama for his award, and a big “thank you…FINALLY” to the Bush administration for doing something decent for once.