Why I'm Not Watching the Olympics

When people ask me if I’m watching the 2008 Summer Olympic Games I always answer with a question: “Would you have watched the 1936 Berlin Games?”

They always respond back “it’s not the same.”

They’re right, it’s not the same.

The Nazi's only killed about 6 million people.

Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has only killed about 60 million people.
(Wasn’t it Stalin who said “the death of one man is a tragedy, but the death of one million is merely a statistic?”)

Yes, the Olympics should be all about the athletes and not about politics -but always is- and since China is requiring gag orders of the athletes and most of the world press, restricting Internet access, lying about the ages of it’s gymnasts, displacing and making homeless thousands of people to build the Olympic venue (I could go on and on), it is China that is politicizing the games - all in the name of “putting on a good face to the world.”

Many of us are not fooled.

Growing up, I embraced the view that the Olympics promoted world peace and celebrated human accomplishment and dignity, but would it not be better to show our support of a country whose government actually shares the beliefs of the Olympic Charter?

I went to the same High School as Mark Spitz (graduated with one of his sisters - pardon my name-dropping) and cheering him on during the 1972 games were the most exciting ever. And yes, Michael Phelps is amazing and deserves his moment of glory, but even he should have thought of the sacrifices we sometimes have to make when we choose to do the right thing.

I am also convinced that the human rights abuses in Beijing, the atrocities in Darfur, Burma, and Tibet, as well as the myriad of horrific and sometimes macabre incidents that occur in China reach FAR beyond the restraints of politics. But surely the difference between war and peace, comfort and torture - even life and death - are enough to call a halt to any international celebratory event, no matter how good its intentions?