EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! The Dalai Lama and Rev. Naomi Tutu are Rockstars!

Dear Editor:

I photographed the Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates in Dialogue for the Ubyssey, the student newspaper at UBC today, and am still overwhelmed and exhilarated from my brief chat with Desmond Tutu (affectionately known as Arch)’s daughter, Rev. Naomi Tutu. He unfortunately threw out his back due to his desire to dance like teenage rockstar!

I am an artist and kinesiologist who is offering my help and referring a friend (Dr. Stuart McGill of University of Waterloo Spine Lab). He will hopefully kindly phone you will advice! backfitpro@...a

“I have a dream that one day…” artists of all colours, shapes, tones and magnitudes of talent will collaborate to start a charity called “ART. (eye). SANS ---------à frontières (borders).

All the compassion, wisdom and caring in the room moved me to act on my feelings in my heart: because just a feeling is powerless, if complacent—in the words of Ms. Tutu. I heard repeatedly of examples of brave women, such as Ms. Betty Williams and Ms. Maguire, Nobel Prize Laureate, who gave from their hearts in the face of challenges and adversity. I am inspired. I am alive. I am selfless occasionally. Occassionally a practicer of “random acts of KINDness. HELPfulness. (Humanity)\ is beauty and givers in humankind is beautiful.

Ms. Tutu, who is an advocate for AIDS awareness and rape survivors spoke of the disservice of inaction, as previously mentioned: feeling (LOVE) but not acting on it—when a second can make a difference is powerless. A random act of kindness and empathy is POWERful.

I ask myself this everyday….Who not to help? Myself? Others? Why should I not help? People are often –VE (Negative), but

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____I_(CAN HELP!)

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BADNESS!

(COWARDS ARE YELLA)

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UPLIFTING

(RED IS THE BLOOD OF LIFE. LUCK)

Positivity uplifts our spirits. Let me tell you about two gentlemen I know: Bill and Chopper. They reside and are a fixture @ Water Skytrain Station: two gentle giants—a man and his 100lb Karen-sized baby boy (German Shepherd). He is full of sadness and suffering, and at times I feel that he has given up in the face of adversity BUT I believe in him!

It opens my (EYES), having volunteered a little with Vancouver Coastal Health in “Sketchy-city downtown Vancity.” I strongly believe that my family support and middle class circumstances protect me and give me the strength to “LIVE.STRONG”. (Lance Armstrong). To carry on. To . TAKE CARE. Before I GO !! GIVE-r! It has been a difficult year for my family with two close dances with death—my father and grandma both sustained a brain injury—accident and stroke respectively. Watching them recover with strength and determination is inspiring. I suppose I am inspiring as well.

I have chronic pain and have sustained 3 minor concussions! B ANGGG! I still recall the day Mr. Moffat, my Computer Studies prof @ Sheridan College …