What Are We Protesting?

The Olympic Torch is slowly making it's way back to China for the start of this summer's Olympic Games to be held in Beijing and in almost every single place the torch has visited thus far, there have been large protests and attempts to douse the flame. In fact in places like France and such, the torch was doused so many times that the French security forces literally were forced to create a defensive perimeter around the torch bearer. I think this was the first time in history where so many security forces were set up to defend against a sniper with a Super Soaker in hand. Jokes aside, it is a pretty serious thing to be having the Olympics in Beijing and whether you agree with the protestors or not, you can't help but wonder, are we really protesting the right thing?

I am in no way supporting the attrocious actions of China in Tibet or the continued human rights violations that crop up in the news now and then, but aren't the Olympics supposed to be more than that? Aren't they symbolic of more than simply saying look here... our country is hosting the Olympics... that means our country is best and acceptable among other countries of this world. I don't think that's the message at all. In fact I think the message that is often carried around is best carried by the athletes of each nation themselves. Now I wasn't around then, but I have read enough history to know about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. At the time Germany was under the rule of Hitler and already there were rumblings of what was to come a short three years hence but while there were protests, the Olympics still went on and in fact it was the time when Jesse Lewis, a supposedly 'inferior person' shamed the so-called superior race into submission and he did it with nothing more than his talent, heart and determination.

The Olympic Games have long been a meeting ground for various races and religions. There are stories that at the beginning of the 1972 Olympics, some of the Israeli athletes went and spoke with their Muslim neighbors from nearby nations. While their leaders may have had to be led at gunpoint to speak to one another at the time, the athletes themselves transcended this foolishness and sought to compete against one another not to prove one nation being better than another, but in a competition of men against men (and women against women). Politicians may scoff at this sentiment but who cares? Sometimes it doesn't take anything more than knowing where the person you're talking to has come from in order to understand them better.

What I mean by that is not so much what nation they have come from as much as I mean what they have sacrificed to be where they are today. An athlete who has dedicated his life to his sport will relate so much better to someone who has gone through that same sort of trial to reach the point they're at today. While boycotting the Olympics can be symbolic of a nation's stance against another, protesting the running of the torch isn't protesting the country hosting the games but in my view, it's more of protesting the athletes themselves. For many of them they have spent their lives working to get to this point and it isn't fair to protest what is inherently a symbol of the games, not the nation. If you want to protest China than protest by boycotting their goods, protest by boycotting their panda bears at the zoo. Protest the IOC for making the decision to have this year's games in China to begin with. Just don't protest the athletes... they are after all athletes, not true politicians.