Submitted by John Spencer Yantiss, Aug 22, 2008 18:25

With great irony I read this editorial. The first paragraph dramatically illustrates why the Olympics remains a "cross-cultural camaraderie and spectacle of athletes from 200 nations gathering in one place to cast aside politics and war and compete on the field merit," but only for the athletes themselves. Practically in one breath, the above phenomenon is celebrated, and then right on its heels follows a statement that shows that the majority of the rest of the world's population, particularly activists, of whatever stripe, will never allow the games to truly be neutral: "But in respect of the net impact of the Games on the campaign for democracy in the communist country, a devastating assessment was issued ahead of the closing ceremonies by Human Rights Watch." We cannot have it both ways. If we wish for the games to be pure and unfettered by "politics and war," We, the rest of us, must keep our mouths shut about those issues when discussing, writing about, and otherwise communicating about them.

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