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After my speech, His Holiness thanked me and added, for everyone in the room: «We must pray for Nancy so that we rid her of her negative attitudes.» That one act speaks volumes about why so many around the world continue to embrace the Dalai Lama’s message of peace: he believes in peace and compassion even for adversaries. He wants actions to be motivated by positive associations, not negative ones. But try as I may to follow his guidance, to rid myself of negative attitudes, to be a positive warrior for Tibet, I cannot stay silent about how the Chinese authorities use economic leverage and brutality to silence the voices of Tibet’s friends.

If we as Americans do not speak out about human rights in China because of commercial interests, then we lose all moral authority to speak out about human rights abuses in any other country in the world.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with this man, and at the end of nearly all of them, I think, Either you are stupid, or you think that the rest of us are.

Whatever differences occur in the legislative debate, it is always important to respect others’ points of view - but it is necessary to trust that the people you are working with speak the truth. «Truth» is a word that Donald Trump exploits but never engages in.

Donald Trump himself set the tone for his term at that first meeting. While I wanted to believe that he would value the dignity of the office and move beyond his name-calling - «Crazy Nancy,» «Crooked Hillary» - it quickly became clear that the man in the Oval Office was even worse than the one we had seen on the campaign trail. So many things with Trump were theatrics. He invariably tried to make the moment about him or his insults.

I was nominated by my colleagues to be Speaker. As I approached the podium to accept the honor, our new caucus chair, Rahm Emanuel, whispered in my ear, «Your parents would be so proud.»
I was taken aback by the comment. Why would my parents be proud? They did not raise me to be Speaker. They raised me to be holy. After having six sons, my mother wanted me to be a nun.