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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > April > 09
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Sports, politics collide yet again
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are many who still believe the idealistic notion that sports and politics need not bang heads in Olympic years. As if 200 nations, bringing an unstable mixture of languages, beliefs and agendas, can peacefully unite in Eden for 17 days, all in the name of seeing who runs the fastest over 400 meters.
This dream was blown apart long ago. Before Moscow in 1980, when the United States led a boycott over the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan. Before Munich in 1972, when Israeli athletes were assassinated by Palestinian terrorists. Before Berlin in 1936, when Hitler hoped the Games would serve as proof of his superior race over blacks and Jews.
Politics and sports were a lethal mix as far back as the Ancient Olympics, when the Greeks formed military alliances during chariot races. Co-existence never had a chance.
China is host to the next Summer Olympics. It has long been criticized for its record in human rights, its policies in Tibet and Darfur and Myanmar. Protests were inevitable.
So was one word: boycott.
Boycotting the Opening Ceremonies (at least) in Beijing has become the flavor of the month in political circles in the U.S. and across Europe. Not surprisingly, a central figure of the civil rights movement has followed in step.
Georgia congressman John Lewis, who took “Freedom Rides” on buses in the segregated South and helped organize sit-ins at lunch counters in Nashville, is calling for at least a partial boycott.
“I’m not saying right now there should be a total boycott of the Olympics,” Lewis said by phone. “I just think we should not attend the Opening Ceremonies. At the same time, even if we attend, we should find a way to make it clear to the government of China that we are standing with the people of Tibet. Their civil rights and basic human rights shouldn’t be trampled on.”
Lewis was among 15 U.S. House members who last week signed a letter by California congressman Maxine Waters, urging President Bush not to attend the Olympics. Waters also introduced a House resolution in August asking Bush to boycott the Games “unless the Chinese government acknowledges and condemns the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of the Sudan.”
Lewis echoed those sentiments, adding: “The people have been crying out for some time for China to change its ways. There are those who have been standing up and advocating change in the last few days, and it [resulting protests] doesn’t look good to many around the world.”
President Carter withheld sending an Olympic team to Moscow as a protest over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Lewis supported such a move. (He wasn’t a member of Congress at the time, but had been appointed by Carter to direct ACTION, a federal volunteer agency.)
When asked if he would favor a total boycott of the Beijing Olympics should progress not be made in China, Lewis said: “I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to that point. But what China has been doing of late is pushing more and more people to take radical steps to [bring attention] to the issues.”
Lewis added, “I don’t want to see anything that hurts the athletes. I’m not saying athletes shouldn’t go to participate, like we did in 1980. But heads of state and legislative bodies and leaders who believe in standing up for human rights have to find some way to protest, to speak up and speak out. There may not be a better time.”
China has hardly budged. Only recently did organizers agree to open Internet access during the Games.
We’ve seen protesters scale the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge. We’ve seen banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.
What does China see? Nothing, apparently. Consider this headline on the official Beijing Olympics Web site Wednesday: “San Francisco embraces Olympic flame with pride.”
Organizers have referred to the torch run in news releases as the “Journey of Harmony.” That journey presumably didn’t take into account the thousands of protesters in London and Paris, where the run had to be cut short. On five occasions in Paris, protests forced the torch to be extinguished and the torch-runner to take shelter in a nearby van.
In San Francisco — where protests are common for far less important matters than human rights — several thousand, including Tibetan monks and nuns, lined the six-mile course. Police were everywhere, even on Jet-Skis in the bay. Protesters carried Tibet flags, marched across the Golden Gate Bridge and shouted, “China lie, people die.”
It’s not quite the Olympic motto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” But by now, we should be used to athletics being the subplot.
