Olympic Boycott

Everyone keeps asking me if I've been watching the Olympics. My answer, "No." Then they stare at me wide-eyed and ask why. It isn't because I don't have television. I'm sure NBC is offering plenty of Olympic coverage online. It isn't because I don't love our American athletes. My objection, in a word: China.

We recently visited Salt Lake City. We hadn't been there since before the Olympics, and you can sure tell that the games left their mark-- the influx of cash, the beautiful new structures, plus so many more houses and a thriving economy. Why would we want to offer these things to a country that repeatedly proves they are so little concerned with their people?


We all know how China works, grinding the poor to support a corrupt regime. So, if the government invested millions of dollars into preparations for the games, on whose backs do you think that sacrifice came? Surely not those of the government themselves. Even if you ignore Darfur and Tibet for a moment, China, despite their best efforts to put on a flawless show, proves themselves again and again an enemy to freedom.


Need more examples? Okay, here are just a few. (While I haven't been watching the games, I have been reading the news.)


Joey Cheek, 2006 Olympic gold medalist was denied a visa to the games because he's an activist for Darfur.


China keeps trying to put on a flawless image, but they seep corruption at every turn. A Chinese state-media story from November states the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin as 13, but now she has a government issued passport that says she's 16 (and therefore old enough to compete.)


7-year-old Yang Peiyi's beautiful voice was heard singing "Ode to the Motherland" during the opening ceremonies, but another girl was lip syncing it on stage because Yang wasn't PRETTY enough. (She has-- gasp-- crooked teeth. What a crime!)


Then there's the threat of a seven year prison sentence to the person who videotaped the "secret" rehearsals for the opening ceremonies. Are you kidding me? Seven years.


Tell me, did all the Soviet Union's gold metals at LA in 1984 make the Berlin Wall any more humane? Have we learned nothing? Somehow the world is turning a blind eye to everything that China stands for and is allow themselves to be wooed by their show.

I wish our athletes well, but as long as the games are in China, count me tuned out.