Thinley reports from D.C.

This article was originally published in August 2009

(August 2009) — PCC Fremont produce worker, Thinley Gyatso, says an amazing amount was accomplished in two days of lobbying in Washington, D.C. for Tibetan freedom.

Thinley was one of 150 delegates from across the country who met with Senators Cantwell and Murray and other legislators.

After a series of meetings, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, 422 to 1, calling on China “to cease its repression of the Tibetan people” and grant them autonomy. The state department already is negotiating to establish a U.S. consulate in Tibet’s capital city of Lhasa before allowing more Chinese consulates to be built here in the United States.

Thinley says, “All the leaders on Capitol Hill received the Tibetan lobbyists honorably, listened intently, and participated earnestly in our discussions.”

Thinley is vice president of the Tibetan Healing Fund, which provides health care and education for rural Tibetan children and families. If you’d like to support its work, donations are accepted at www.tibetanhealingfund.org.

Also in this issue

Beefing Up the Palouse

Livestock often are vilified for producing more greenhouse gases than automobiles. What’s consistently ignored, however, is the failure of most research to distinguish between animals raised in confined feedlots and animals grazing on rangeland as nature intended in a holistic system.

Insights by Goldie: Important summer reading

No, I don’t have a steamy romance novel or crime thriller to suggest. The summer reading I recommend will update you on important regional and federal legislation that could improve school food quality dramatically and foster healthier eating habits.

Harvesting sunlight

Everything in life is driven by energy. Our machines — planes, boats, trains, cars, farm and construction equipment — all run on oil. We are driven, too, running on carbohydrates (sugars), fats and protein. Yet all oil and all the food that sustains us can be traced back to free energy from the sun.