Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Olympics

I need to get this on the record before the Olympics start and I become a Monday-morning quarterback.

I don't know why the Olympic committee gave this year's Olympics to China - ok, I do know why, but it was a really naive move. They are not going to improve human rights or do any of the things the Olympic committee or the rest of the world wants them to do. They are going to continue to be the same human-less machine they have always been and anyone who thought giving them the Olympics was going to change something was foolish.

Having said that, I want all to know I love the Olympics. Every bit of it. I know its problems, the inner-political squabbles and all the junk. But when the athletes take the field, the rink, the ice, the bars, the board, the pool or whatever their sport is played on, I an completely taken in by the purity of the athletic achievement. I love the personal sacrifice, the personal stories, the athletes, the pageantry, the ceremony - I love the Olympics.

However, I have to be on the record early here. These Olympics in China are going to be a nightmare. The pollution, the green gunk in the water - it's just the tip of the iceberg. These people don't have a clue as to what they are doing and these Olympics are going to be a mess. This will be an international drama of epic proportion. I have been seeing the fallout in my head for months now. You just hide and watch.

It grieves me to write those words, but I know it in my heart, and when it happens, I will not be able to scream loudly enough, "I KNEW IT!" and that will make me physically ill. So, I am going on the record now so that I can point back to this and say, "I KNEW IT!" and not become ill.

Of course I hope I'm wrong, what do you think I am - unpatriotic? mean-spirited? Sure, I hope I am wrong.

But I'm not.

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