By PATRICIA SIMMS
A prominent critic of government involvement in religion is opposing a request to fly the Tibetan flag over the City-County Building to honor the visit of the Dalai Lama to Madison next week.
The Dalai Lama is a religious, not a governmental, leader, said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
“Public officials need to be very careful what precedent they set even if they have the best intentions,” Gaylor said Wednesday.
The City-County Liaison Committee will decide tonight whether to make an exception to the building rules that only the U.S. flag should be flown over the building.
Tim Saterfield, Dane County legislative service director, said the request is unusual. “I don’t ever remember exceptions being granted, but I don’t think we’ve had any requests for exceptions,” he said.
Dane County Sup. Dave de Felice, 16th District, wrote a letter Tuesday to Sup. Carousel Bayrd, co-chairwoman of the committee.
“His High Holiness is spiritual mentor to millions of Buddhists throughout the world,” he wrote, “and a leader of the Tibetan people. . . . A resolution honoring the Dalai Lama has been approved by the Madison City Council, and a resolution is pending before the Dane County Board of Supervisors.
“Flying the Tibetan flag on the City-County Building would be an appropriate recognition of his High Holiness, and the efforts by Tibetans here and throughout the world to re-establish self-rule and freedom of religion in their native country.”
George Twigg, spokesman for Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said the mayor supports flying the Tibetan flag.
But Gaylor said the Dalai Lama holds no government position. “It seems like a bad precedent to fly a flag for a religious leader,” she said. “It’s one thing to show solidarity with the people of Tibet, but when it’s done, really, basically to honor a religious leader, it becomes a state-church issue”
Sherab Lhatsang, a member of the Wisconsin Tibetan Association, Wednesday said the Dalai Lama is a spiritual and a temporal leader.
“He’s the one who leads our cause right now – the freedom of Tibet,” Lhatsang said. “He’s asking for autonomy from the Chinese.”
Lhatsang said it is illegal to own a Tibetan flag if you live in Tibet. “If you are arrested with a Tibetan flag, you could be locked up,” he said. “It is a great honor for us to have the Tibetan flag flown (over the City-County Building). It is recognition that the Dalai Lama is actually the leader of Tibet.”
