The Olympic Shame Games

While the protests continue over in Beijing, here in America we’ve all caught Olympic fever, and the uncomfortable implications of the Totalitarian Games seems to have left our minds as quickly as Michael Phelps swam the first leg of the 4x200 relay. ↵↵Phelps, Dara Torres, Kirsty Coventry, the unlikely medal for the U.S. men’s gymnastics team, a potential Federer/Nadal Olympic tennis final -- the memorable sports stories keep mounting over in Beijing, and true to form those stories are erasing from our minds all doubts and concerns about holding such a prestigious international event in Communist China. NBC’s ratings have been through the roof, and never one to rain on their own parade, the network is skirting the mention of any unpleasantness with the trademark euphemistic doublespeak of a giant corporation complicit in a dubious venture. ↵

↵↵I live in Berkeley, CA, however, where the daily atmosphere of protest is almost stultifying in its earnestness. Predictably, the Olympic spirit here seems much more skewed towards outrage than celebration. I’ve seen this particular t-shirt -- “Olympics in China, Torture in Tibet” with the Olympic rings in the shape of handcuffs -- quite a bit out on the street in my neighborhood, and I must say it gets to the heart of the matter like a sharp blade to the chest. I’m a bigger fan of the Olympics than almost everyone I know and I’ve been watching obsessively since Opening Ceremony. But I watch with unease, with a sense that someday I’ll read about the atrocities of this Chinese dictatorship and feel deep shame at how I willfully ignored what I knew but did not want to know, and instead focused my attentions squarely on the shoulders of the amazing Mr. Phelps.↵

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