On a Serious Note.

*Warning: the following post is extremely serious. For those not wishing to read a serious post on a serious topic please avert your eyes. For those who are alright with it, by all means, continue reading.

The Olympic Games. Long a symbol of international peace and goodwill amongst humankind. Also, something I look forward to watching every two years. This year my opinions have changed. Now, we all know that I am not your typical Amnesty International-type. Most people would see me as quite the opposite. But, I cannot ignore what is right in my face.

China has been on the tops of countries that value little the rights of its citizenry for quite some time. I had high hopes that a turn toward a more capitalistic form of economics would change this. It appears that this has not taken place. Instead, it seems the basic human rights of the Chinese hang in the balance every day and the Olympics has shed a great deal of light on this.

It scares me to think of all the Chinese that have been forced to make way for new construction of Olympic venues. I am made nearly-ill by how hard the authoritarian government has come down on Tibetan protesters simply looking for more control of their own destiny.

Now I can think of two possible outcomes for having the Olympic games in China. The first is that the people of China will be irrevocably scarred by the great lengths their government have gone to in order to bring the world the summer games. The other option, (and I'm hoping for this one) is that by having the Olympics in China a lot of coverage will be given to the human rights abuses that are rampant in China. Hopefully this will happen through thoughtful reaction by nations, athletes, and corporate participants.

If some great social change doesn't occur because of the games, I believe it comes down to us, the common folk, to change things. By this I encourage everyone to give thought to the products they buy that are made in China and by those corporations that do business there.

I'm sure many of you are probably shocked that I would write something of this nature. But, I see this is as an incredibly important international issue and I thank you for giving this some thought.

The games will go on, I am sure. But, I for one, will not be watching.