There’s a bunch of talk about various countries bowing out of the Olympic Games in order to ‘teach China a lesson.’ I wonder what kind of lesson that would be?
I remember the last time we boycotted the Olympic Games in 1980. This was at the time Jimmy Carter was President. It was merely a distraction from the reality of double digit inflation and having our butt handed to us around the world. I remember our poor Olympic athletes being paraded on the White House lawn and being presented a meaningless medal for their non-attendance in the games in Moscow.
Many say that Martin Van Buren (“Martin Van Ruin” by critics) was our worst President, but I would nominate Jimmy Carter the incompetent, micro managing peanut farmer.
Some european countries and some from our American House of Representatives feel ‘morally’ moved to keep their young people from competing in the Olympics.
I hope no one is stupid enough to believe that this boycott talk is all about “Tibet?” Ask yourself if these two things have any connection: first, Arab oil producing countries have been squawking about the recent crack down on Muslim Terrorists in China in preparation for the Olympics; and now, China has just provided the United Nations with evidence of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons ambitions. Is this ‘tit for tat?’
Let’s let the youth of the world fight it out in the Olympics as Baron Coubertin originally envisioned and not in the oil field. He wrote:
“the important thing in life is not victory, but the fight; the main thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.”
Let the Games begin!
Roger Freberg
