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Passing the Torch

by The Perfessor Posted on Apr 10, 2008 under Dance A Little Side Step, Playing With Balls |

Right now the Olympic Torch is winding its way towards Beijing, where it will light up the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics. Unless you’ve been living with your head in a bucket (or made a deal with the devil to un-marry your wife Sorry, side reference), you will be aware of the fact that there is some consternations about the fact that the Olympics are in China (something to do with Tibet, I’m told).

At any rate, a whole buncha folks seem to be upset over all of this, and are doing their level best to extinguish the torch before it gets to China (again, something about human rights violations or some such nonsense). Thing is, now all the talking heads on the 24-hr TV networks are yammering about is should we or should we not boycott the Olympics.

Fools.

In the ancient world, the Olympic Athletes were the only ones who were given a free pass to cross enemy lines. Wars that were being waged, stopped so that the athletes could cross unmolested. We have so politicized the Olympics that it isn’t funny. So whenever I hear someone talking about boycotting the Olympics (like these empty-talking heads on TV) I want to bitch-slap the A-hole.

To make my point the last (only) President to boycott the Olympics was Jimmy Carter. You might recall that he didn’t get re-elected. You may think that this is a coincidence, but I have my own theory (like you didn’t see this coming, eh?) Consider this. For many of these athletes this was their only shot at Olympic Gold. When it came time for Carter to run again, do you think that any of these kids were going to vote for the guy who personally screwed up their lives? Not hardly.

I know, I know, I can hear you already, so a couple of hundred whiny athletes didn’t vote to reelect Carter big deal. Well, it wasn’t just the U.S. team, it was all their family members, and all of their friends, and perhaps even former athletes who understood their pain. Now imagine all of the boys and girls clubs and all of the (middle schools?) high schools, from whence those athletes came. Now factor in all the schoolmates, teachers, coaches, fellow city and town residents, and all of the local politicians (especially the Republicans) who watched as the kids were let down by their government.

Not enough you say? You just might be right. So consider this. Hundreds of U.S. corporations paid thousands and thousands of dollars for the privilege of attaching “Official Sponsor” to their name. The U.S. Broadcast networks paid some serious bucks to broadcast the games, U.S. Newspapers were all stoked up to report on the games (and reap the financial reward from increased circulation and the influx of all those afore-mentioned “Official Sponsor” mega-dollars). Then Carter gos and pulls the rug out on all of them, and says we’re not going.

Now look at all the revenue that was lost by all the corporate sponsors, and as much as these CEOs love their burgeoning sports heroes, they love their company bonuses even more, and when some bone-headed politician with morals and ethics gets in the way of them lining their pockets with good ol’ U.S. dollars they are simply not going to let one go by without some form of retribution. Starting to sound like a plausible theory now, eh?

So tell me again that boycotting the Olympics is a good idea.

The Perfessor