Sticking it to the man

I love sports. I do. Sometimes liking them got me involved with people I didn’t particularly care for. Like, in high school, all of the jocks were dipshits. I hated them. But I still played basketball with them, or a pickup game of football. It brought us together, if just for that short period of time. And even though I was that weird kid with a bad hair cut (really long on top, shaved underneath, sometimes with bright colors) I still had a pretty good jump shot and was able to dish out some nice no look passes. People wanted me on their team.

Doing this didn’t make them like me any more, and it certainly didn’t raise my perception of them, but during the game it didn’t matter. If me and some random dipshit were running a fast break and I saw that he had the lane I made the pass and he scored and we would high five or whatever. It worked. The games were a lot of fun. And after the games they went to date rape cheerleaders or whatever jocks do and I went to go listen to music and be angsty about THE MAN!!1!1!!

I was running around heymonkeybrain, as I do multiple times a day, and I finally decided to sit down and read Sports and Politics Do Mix, Boycott the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The reason I had always skipped over it in the past is because I just didn’t know how I felt. I am no expert on China. I mean I know they don’t treat people as well as I think people should be treated (and neither does any other country, ever, but it’s a sliding scale and China seems to be on the low end). So, yeah, I mean I guess I don’t like China because of that. And it seems like Tibet has good reasons for wanting to its own state and it sucks that China isn’t willing to let it happen.

But I am also a realist, I know that China is doing what it thinks is right. I am into individual rights, I am into state sovereignty, all of that jazz. So while I don’t love China and hope they make stride to be a greater country I also know in a lot of ways its none of my business. Now, the more heavy handed they get the more it is our business, because the world can’t just sit around and watch innocent people get trampled. But, starting any shit with China is a messy situation indeed. It trumps the cold war, it trumps Vietnam, it trumps Iraq, it even trumps A shot at love /w/ Tila Tequila. But being that it’s a large undertaking does that make it not worth doing? Who knows, only time will tell.

The way that we, the people, can do anything is to boycott. I like boycotts. I like protests. I like those crazy mother-effers that climb buildings and stage protests like extreme sports athletes with banners on high rises and all that. That’s cool with me. Climb the golden gate bridge and protest the Olympics, not only is it getting your message out there but you are also getting a pretty good work out with all that climbing. And, for the rest of us, it’s pretty funny when they secretly change the route and you look kinda silly. But that is their right also. You can protest, they can avoid. I support both sides.

Now, what I do disagree with is the country boycotting the Olympics as a whole. I think it is an individual decision. If swimmer X is outraged by Tibet and doesn’t want to go, good for him/her. Don’t go. You are absolutely within your rights to do that. But this whole “no one should go” thing is heavy handed. Why can’t we all just decide on our own?

Growing up I had a friend named Jennifer. We weren’t best buddies, but we had many good chats. She was a world class swimmer from a young age and there was this buzz, this hope, that she could someday make it to the Olympics. Now, I was a burnout of sorts, I was good at basketball but my main interests were hanging out and doing nothing, listening to music, watching movies, creating art, etc etc. So we came from different worlds, but I was always so interested in what this girl’s life was like.

At high school parties where I would run into her I would get drunk and just throws tons and tons of questions at her. What was it like being so good? Is there a lot of pressure? Do you feel like you are being groomed for this and nothing else? Do you feel trapped? Are your parents pressuring you? Is any of this even your choice?

Her answers were (what seemed to me) always honest. I’m not gonna spill the beans on this girls life, but yes being that good was really hard work and she was being tugged at and dragged in 9000 different directions, while also just trying to be a normal teenage girl.

I don’t know how far Jennifer ever made it. I’m not up on the swimming scene and I haven’t run into her since high school. Though I did see she was on facebook, maybe I’ll point her to this blog post.

The reason I am telling this story about this girl is because it is my only glimpse into what it is like to train to become an Olympic athlete. And if someone has spent their whole life training for something and they achieved their goal and they want to go fulfill what they have worked SOOO hard for, I say more power to them. And someone who is mad at China (and has every right to be mad at China) can boycott the Olympics if they want, but if a specific athlete wants to go I think they have every right to.

Also, there are a myriad of other reasons why going to China could be good. Number one would be to go there and beat them. Remember when the US beat Russia in hockey in the miracle on ice? That obviously wasn’t the same winning the cold war, but that sure was an emotional contest. It added to the drama that sports inherently already have.

Go to China, you don’t have to like China, it is just a sporting event after all. Go beat them. Go compete. Go have some fun. I didn’t like the guys I played basketball with but that didn’t stop me from playing with them. And it didn’t stop me from draining that three in the corner to win the game and then walking over to the bench, grabbing my stuff and walking away on my own knowing that I just showed them up at their own game.

Weigh in on this debate yourself at this wonderful and multifaceted argument HMB lens.