Wonderful China -- the site of egg rolls and bathhouses and the Great Wall.
China also is home to trade barriers, Tibetan suppression, governmental support of repressive governments in Africa, totalitarian communism, an alliance with Iran, violations of World Trade Organization rules, disregard for intellectual and artistic property rights, tainted gluten, altered pharmaceuticals, hacking U.S. Defense Department computers, spying, threatening Taiwan, religious persecution, human rights violations, no free press, censorship, one-child laws, forced abortions, pollution and building coal-fired power plants anyway, lead paint, Hong Kong restraints, diversion of water from villages for the Olympics and the arrest, torture and disappearance of political dissenters.
Oh yes, China also is the site of the 2008 Olympic Games.
The time to really figure out what to do about China and the Olympics was almost a decade ago, when the games were awarded to Beijing. But nobody seemed to care, then, so we are faced with the dilemma now.
What do we do about the Chinese?
There is not much debate about how bad China is. Forget the air pollution for a minute. This is a country where human rights are a foreign idea. If you've got good countries and bad countries, China is a bad country.
Nevertheless, it is also a huge economic power and growing force in the world. Everyone thinks China will be a dominant player in the geopolitical wars in the not too distant future.
There are tiny rumblings about a boycott of the opening ceremony or a boycott of the games to protest Chinese policies. But most people argue that China wouldn't change a thing even if there was a boycott. And that's probably true.
I vividly remember that day in 1989 with the picture of the unknown rebel standing in front of four Chinese army tanks, holding them up for half an hour. If any picture ever told the story of a country, that one did.
This issue inspires a lot of interest in Milwaukee. Ever since the Bucks drafted Yi Jianlian, business and cultural interests in Milwaukee have begun working to establish even greater ties with China.
This whole Olympic thing in China bothers me. This country is building vast structures of steel and glass and they have all their dancers and singers primed for entertainment. They have been creating explosions inside the clouds of pollution in hopes of clearing the air. But it's like they are laughing at the rest of the world.
I like sports when they are free of politics. But the Olympics have never been free of politics. There is cheating and gamesmanship and commercialization. They keep score by country, for goodness sake.
The Olympic Charter says sport must be "at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
That is not China. by any stretch of the imagination.
I know it would be hard on the athletes who have trained for so long. However, our country can't just stand by and say, "That's OK, we know you haven't behaved very well, but we can still have the party, can't we?"
It would be nothing more than symbolic, but sometimes symbols are very important. I think the United States should to stand up and say we can't bring ourselves to play in a country that has such blatant disregard for things we believe are important.
Would it solve anything? Probably not. However, it sure would make me feel proud of living here and show the rest of the world that we aren't afraid to act in accordance with our beliefs.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
