As one would have expected, the editorial page writers for Vancouver’s two major dailies have parrotted Vanoc’s John Furlong in expressing dismay over the protests dogging the Olympic torch relay. Politics and sport should not not mix, they say. The protesters are opportunistic. Think of the athletes and their dreams. Take issue with China if you must, but do not sully the Olympic image.

What utter nonsense! While the Olympic games may once have exemplified pure ideals of amateur sport, and even that is arguable, the modern Olympics are all about money. The IOC is a monopolistic cabal intent on lining its pockets with as much cash as possible. It selected China as a host for its 2008 circus for one simple reason: money. China represents a vast untapped market for the IOC and its sponsors, and they plan to make money there as they never have before. By choosing to hold its event in one of the world’s most corrupt, repressive and bloodthirsty states, the IOC deserves to reap what it has sown.

We should not shed a tear for the athletes. They are incidental to the IOC’s goals, mere pawns in its ambition. As human beings, each athlete should ask him or herself; should I endorse China and its abysmal behaviour by participating in this event? I would like to think the answer would be a resounding no.

Olympics in China? What were they thinking? What if they held an Olympic Games and nobody came?

…….

VIVA MORELLO!

What is it?

What is it that would cause an otherwise reasonably sane and well-adjusted heterosexual male to sleep overnight on the concrete outside Buffalo’s Rich Stadium, to dodge flying bottles and riot police on horseback outside Rotterdam’s Feyenoord Stadium, to travel to Koln, Munich, London and a host of other cities around the globe, putting jobs and relationships in jeopardy?

What is it that would cause him to jump around onstage before hundreds of classmates, in makeup and too-tight clothes, to render off-key versions of “Brown Sugar” and “Bitch”?

What is it, indeed?

Martin Scorsese gets it.

Martin Scorsese got it.

Thanks, Martin Scorsese.

It has been forty years since we lost one of the greatest men to grace the planet. What would Dr. King think of us today?

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'”

There hasn’t been this much cause for optimism about the direction of politics in America since, oh, April 3, 1968.