Olympics Sets The Stage For Tragedy

The Olympics give us a rare opportunity for the world to come together and watch the achievements of athletes who win by pushing themselves beyond their endurance.

However, the Olympics unwillingly place world events on a stage to be speculated and ridiculed. When China was awarded to host the 2008 Olympics, its atrocious human rights record gained more attention than what government officials wanted.

These limitations were further magnified when it was reported that the freedoms that China promised to international journalists were severely tighten and restricted.

Certainly not something that should surprise too many. If a communist country cares little for its own people, why should they care about foreign visitors?

But the most recent event that was calculatingly placed on the Olympic world stage is the current conflict between Georgia and Russia, with South Ossetia sandwiched in the middle.

While the Olympics is one of the few events that can draw many diverse nations and people together to make them cheer together in the glory of winning and share a moment of sorrow in defeat, the Olympics, in a unique way, also brought many together to bear a tearful witness of the tragedy of the loss of people in South Osseria or the loss of a people’s freedoms in China.

Because these two events have, in a horrific fashion, been place on the same stage where people competing for gold metals for impressive achievements of the human body, this murdering of decency forced us all to take notice of them and not be able to turn away.

While these things should not intrude on the Olympics, nonetheless they have and we should not turn a blind eye. This would be a good time for the world to truly unite together to better help our fellow men and women of these injustices. The accomplishment in this would be worth more than a million gold metals.