Letters to the Editor

• Olympic Shame

  [Read the article: Torching the Olympics]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I agree that the United States has little claim on a stellar human rights record. But US citizens of good conscience have every right to express their disgust.

  China's propping up of the genocidal regime in Darfur is beneath contempt. Its massacre of Tibetan monks is equally shameful. The way China stifles free speech (not unlike our own) goes against the values of the last three countries through which it tried to run that damned torch.

  I was appalled when the IOC made the deplorable decision to grant China the games. China views the Olympics as its version of a coming out party as a Super Power and a country that no longer belongs amongst the ranks of rogue nations. The IOC aided and abetted China's efforts at gaining international legitimacy despite its deplorable record. Though there are other nations in this world with awful human rights records, they too, like China, do not deserve that sort of legitimacy. With that in mind, as well as other protests by Olympic athletes, it is fallacious to claim the Olympics are not political. Anyone remember when the US refused to participate in the Olympics when the games were held in Moscow?

  As for the athletes, I am sorry that they have worked so hard for their chance at the games. But I think that the brutality in Darfur, the arming of Burma, the killing of prisoners for their organs, the stifling of free speech, and the situation in Tibet all outweigh that. Human lives outweigh the high dive any day.

  Permalink Thursday, April 10, 2008 10:20 AM