I’ve always been generally in agreement with the idea that the Olympics should be beyond politics. In the past, it allowed for differences to be set aside for the sake of good-will and comradery. Of course, it’s a naive perspective because it’s a political statement unto itself either way.
The winter games in Beijing are different, however. It used to be that “differences” were about incidents of bygones past. There still usually is a difference of policy with many nations hosting and/or participating in the Olympics but at least the games go on for the sake of keeping the peace – so to speak. But even this perspective isn’t entirely true about this Olympics. The United States has already diplomatically boycotted the games in Beijing, ostensibly because of human rights abuses in that country.
That’s good enough, I suppose, for what it is at face value. But in the light of denying an act of biological warfare like Covid, recognizing human rights violations on the interior of China while participating in the Olympics is adding insult to injury for ourselves. Covid has now killed almost 6 million people worldwide and is well on it’s way to killing a million in the United States. That’s in the same ballpark as WWII and the holocaust.
Participating in the Beijing Olympics – while Covid is still raging all over the world – is exactly like it would have been to go to the Olympics in Nazi Germany in the middle of WWII while already aware of the gas chambers in the backyard. The moral degradation in the United States that has allowed for this scenario is mind boggling.
Part of the problem no doubt, is the hyper focus on sports and the reality that sports competitions tend to advance the illusion of perfection and superiority. The NFL may not have started off with the intention of advancing neo-Nazism, but at the end of the day that is the reality. Generation after generation removed from the lessons of the past allow that cultivation to grow ever more deeply. And now, no one blinks an eye while we hangout on the backyard playground in Beijing as people are still dying, everyday, from an act of biological warfare that originated in that country.
It’s been past time to rethink the sports culture in the United States, and the Olympic abomination is just one more point to that argument. It would be tough to tell an athlete that spent their entire life preparing that they won’t even get a shot at their big chance. That big chance at a playground game is now punctuated by six million lives lost.
It is my opinion that the United States should pack up every athlete and leave China – right now. If they don’t, any U.S. athlete in China ought to pack their bags and leave, or sit in their hotel room until the games are over. And, I strongly encourage every United States citizen to turn off your TV and totally boycott the Olympics in Beijing in anyway you can.
©2022 – Jim Casey
