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June 10, 1997
Bill Gates and the Dalai Lama in the Same Month
It's been a random kind of week for me, folks. On Wednesday, I got an email from a friend who said there'd be a press conference with Bill Gates at the MLK Memorial Library here in DC. Apparently, Bill was donating a dozen computers and a million dollars Internet access at the library. The press conference wasn't meant to be public, per se, but I went anyway and somehow managed to sit up front, surrounded by the DC city council and the library's board of trustees. The library's director first introduced Washington Redskin Darryl Green, who talked about how computers had opened up new opportunities for his son. Then, Gates spoke, offering us brief remarks on how computers are revolutionizing everything. I even got to ask Bill a question. If you want to hear the full story, check out my Encounter with The Man.
I also recently had the supreme pleasure of seeing and hearing the Dalai Lama speak at an interfaith service for the religious freedom of Tibet at the Washington National Cathedral. The Dalai Lama was in town for, among other things, a belated Passover seder in which Jews and Tibetans compared the strife of modern Tibet with that of the Exodus from Egypt. He was joined at the Cathedral by fellow Nobel laureate Maireid Maguire and Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, the Supreme Buddhist Patriarch of Cambodia, as well as several other prominent religious leaders. Seeing the Dalai Lama in person was certainly an experience I'll never forget.
Posted by acarvin at June 10, 1997 12:33 PM
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