I'm boycotting the Olympics; are you?

Olympic rings

I think China sucks.

There, I said it.  I said it even though my parents had a very nice tour there last year, even though I'd like to see the Great Wall someday, even though friends have adopted daughters from there, and even though most toys and furniture and even some food in our house is imported from China -- I can't stand the place.  While I have many issues with China as a nation -- the trade deficit and their holding of too many US bonds among them  -- I started stewing over this past weekend over the Olympic Games that are about to begin in China.  It's been bothering me for a while that my Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has not taken a stand against U.S. participation in these games.  Obama criticized Bush for his plans to attend the opening ceremonies, claiming that Obama would have boycotted even while American athletes took the field.  But where is Obama's real pressure on China to free Tibet? to give all of its people a right to free speech and a free press? to give all of its people the right to worship freely? to procreate?  Statements condemning the Chinese for inaction in Tibet are empty words.  Where is the tough talk instead of the sissy slap on the wrist?

On the one hand, a boycott of opening ceremonies by the President would send a significant message.  On the other hand, if Americans are still in the games, does anyone really give a fig if the President was there at the start or not?  My husband and mother-in-law were quick to suggest that the Olympics are apolitical.  I call them wrong.  If the Olympics were apolitical, one of the most memorable Olympic images wouldn't be the 1968 black power salute.  If the Olympics were apolitical, Jimmy Carter wouldn't have boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a stance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  If the Olympics were apolitical, Iraq would be on the field.  I am a sports historian, and I've studied the Olympics pretty significantly.  Apolitical?  My ass. 

Today, Amnesty International released its report on how China has failed to live up to the promises it made in order to win the right to play host to these Olympics.  Amnesty indicates clearly that core Olympic tenets of "universal fundamental ethical principles" and "human dignity" are not compatible with, say, the Chinese jailing those who they think will not convey the image they want the world to see during the televised Games.  Since my parents who were there a year and a half ago reported that citizens were being ordered to practice standing in line already, I can only imagine the crackdowns now.

Four Olympics ago, I watched as my cousin won an Olympic silver in swimming in the Atlanta Games.  We hardly know each other, but I was so proud that I probably shed a tear or two.  She represented our country well.  She worked so hard to get there and reaped the reward of that effort.  Athletes like her deserve to compete in an atmosphere where the focus is on their effort alone.  When the Olympics are in a nation known for violating human rights, that cannot happen.  Not only should the U.S. not be there -- the Olympics shouldn't be there, either.  It's a crying shame, and I, for one, will NOT be watching. 

But Obama?  I'll be watching you.  I'd like to hear a fiery speech against the Chinese torturing and imprisonment of political dissidents, and probably of those who can't stand in line neatly enough.  It's high time somebody says something other than "buy American" -- which just isn't enough.