Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them or to use words like beauty excellence art poetry with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.

If you don't die of thirst there are blessings in the desert. You can be pulled into limitlessness which we all yearn for or you can do the beauty of minutiae the scrimshaw of tiny and precise. The sky is your ocean and the crystal silence will uplift you like great gospel music or Neil Young.

Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing on their ways is on this short day of frost and sun to sleep before evening.

I separated from the Southern Baptists when they adopted the discriminatory attitude towards women because I believe what Paul taught in Galatians that there is no distinction in God's eyes between men and women slaves and masters Jews and non-Jews - everybody is created equally in the eyes of God.

My attitude to peace is rather based on the Burmese definition of peace - it really means removing all the negative factors that destroy peace in this world. So peace does not mean just putting an end to violence or to war but to all other factors that threaten peace such as discrimination such as inequality poverty.

Too small is our world to allow discrimination bigotry and intolerance to thrive in any corner of it let alone in the United States of America.

Discrimination due to age is one of the great tragedies of modern life. The desire to work and be useful is what makes life worth living and to be told your efforts are not needed because you are the wrong age is a crime.