What about the dreams and hard work of hundreds of thousands of native Tibetans, who want to prevent their children from being indoctrinated by Chinese propaganda at school (i.e. written denunciations of the Dalai Lama, written support for the Chinese government leaders)?

What about the dream of being able to walk through the streets of your home city without being shot at by the military?

What about the dream of being able to leave the country without getting shot at by border police?

What about the dream of being able to choose your own religious and political leaders?

What about the dreams and hard work of the ancestors of modern Tibetans, who formed a civilization that is at least ten times older than the United States?

The “dreams and hard work” of an American pole vaulter from New Jersey is nothing compared to these things. You’ve got your priorities WAY out of order.

But lets not upset the torch relay because the Olympics is about the “athletes,” not politics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I’m sorry - I just fell out of my chair trying to contain my laughter there. The chinese are using the Olympics to showcase their emergence to the modern world, all the while hiding their dirty laundry - politics pure and simple.

Oh, and let’s not mention the chinese support of the genocide in the Sudan. We wouldn’t want to upset the “athletes.”

Bottom line, you have to take the opportunities you have to free a people. I, personally, don’t give a flying f#*k about the athletes when there is a whole country out there being systematically eradicated from the earth. In fifty years of illegal occupation, this may be the only time there is to do anything significant about it.

Shame on me? I think you need to sort out your priorities, sugar.

PS

I think it is rather dubious that many who frown upon the Left’s lack of support for freedom and democracy in the Middle East are now being criticized for finally standing up with those who support the freedom of millions of people under one of the world’s most oppressive governments. Are you actually saying they are wrong to do this because they are harming an athlete’s opportunity to compete in a GAME? If the IOC cared about the athletes and their desires to compete, they would have given the games to a country that doesn’t kill its own people when they exercise their basic freedoms.

So the Left stands up to an evil communist regime, and they deserve shame? Shame on YOU for denoucing those who stand up for the freedom of a people who have no voice and have been slaughtered by the Chinese for decades.