Dear Readers,
I'm ready for Olympia mania. Assuming the Chinese government doesn't flip out even more in their zeal to close websites, arrest reporters, crack down on Tibet or their own dissidents we'll be bombarded by images of amazingly gifted athletes competing in dozens of sports. I love it and can't wait.
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However, this is not to say I don't care about the politics swirling around the Beijing Olympics. I wish Chinese President Hu Jintao would meet with the Dalai Lama, withdraw his support of the genocidal generals in Khartoum and Burma, and nudge his buddy Kim Jong-il to get with the nuclear-disarmament program. And I wish they'd lighten up on the press--maybe the Chinese government needs a new PR firm. Whatever they've been doing seems to have badly backfired.
We all know China needs to end the censorship and open up its political system. And they need to seriously go after the real criminals, the ones who make fraudulent pharmaceuticals, mercury-laced makeup, carcinogenic children's candy, contaminated toothpaste, and all the rest.
But boycotting the Olympics would have accomplished none of this. I've been absolutely against this idea, and just in case any of you favored it, I'll try to explain why.
When President Jimmy Carter issued his famous ultimatum demanding that Soviet troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan by 12:01 a.m. EST on February 20, 1980 or we wouldn't go to the Moscow Olympics, I remember laughing out loud. No one believed the maniacs in the Kremlin would pay any attention to Jimmy's whimpering. And they didn't. The tanks kept rolling down the streets of Kabul. It was probably the most foolish moment of his presidency, worse than the sweater thing.
The Russians retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Athletes on both sides of the Iron Curtain were shafted; they paid the price for this political tomfoolery.
People who say the Olympics are "just another sporting event" are naive or worse. Sure, the Olympics are all about sports, but at the same time they are all about politics. It is for this reason and my understanding of Olympic history that I believe the politically wise thing to do is to show up. If you want to have an impact, you need to be there.
Just imagine what we'd be missing if President Roosevelt had boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jesse Owens would not be a symbol of the African-American struggle for equality. And on a lesser note, we might not have Leni Riefenstahl's great Olympia, a film that revolutionized modern editing techniques. The final gold medal tally of this Olympics, the one remembered by history: Jesse Owens 4, Hitler 0.
In 1964, the Mexican government massacred hundreds of students in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas just two weeks before the opening of the Mexico City Olympics. Yet the games went on. And in one dramatic moment, two American athletes shook the world and provided us with one of the most enduring photographs of all time, when they each lowered their heads and defiantly raised a black-gloved fist as "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played during the award ceremony.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos paid a heavy price for their theatrics; they were suspended from the U.S. team and banned from future Olympics. Back in America they and their families received death threats. But today, Smith, age 63, and Carlos, age 62, are revered across the world and considered heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. There is even a beautiful, imposing bronze statue of these two at San Jose State University, where they went to college.
Without question, the Munich Olympics were the most disastrous. Eleven brave Israeli athletes and one German police officer lost their lives at the hands of the Black September terrorists, and I suppose if this one Olympics could have been cancelled ahead of time I would have been all for it. However, there was no advance warning, no calls for a boycott. The world learned something about how horribly twisted terrorists can be, and if there was a silver lining it was the tremendous solidarity of the athletes who continued on with the games.
Certainly things aren't going as planned for the Chinese government. They are feeling the heat as millions around the globe denounce their bullying of smaller countries and their lack of regard for basic human rights. More importantly, freedom-loving native Chinese, Tibetans, Burmese, and the victims in Darfur are seeing they aren't alone. Will this translate into positive change? Perhaps not, but it's nice to see the Chinese master sweat.
I'm still mad as hell, but I say, let the games begin.