LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH...

I don't want my anger over the Chinese human rights policies to in any way diminish what these young people have worked for over many years of training. The Olympics have always been the one area where my latent nationalism was always triggered. And, in the reality of the world, it is not only the policies of the Chinese in the areas of human rights who deserve to be viewed as villainous. In almost every country this is becoming an increasing burden to society.

One only has to go to The Human Rights Watch website to see that this is a universal problem. To expect that the International Olympic Committee could make decisions regarding the ethical decision to be made in view of their own scandal ridden past.

Things are just so complicated today. But, then again, they have always probably been complicated. There is a universal connectivity that disallows one single activity to stand alone. When addressed in this fashion I see the problem as having been instituted with the origins of classism and racism. While these are listed here separately, it is easy to see that through the ages these have become so intertwined that it difficult to see them as separate entities.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as adopted by the United Nations sums up just exactly how the world and its inhabitants should approach relationships with others. The fact that, since the beginning of history, this has never occurred does not preclude it from ever happening. I would like to be able to say that this begins with each and every one of us individually and we are the only ones who can stop the decline of society. While it does begin with each and every one of us, it is also very important the we not let an opportunity to stop an injustice from occuring pass by without action. This is not an easy responsibility to take on. It can take a jovial conversation amongst friends to a dead stop in less than a millisecond. It can mean speaking to stranges in a respectful and firm manner that such words, actions, beliefs are not to be accepted as correct. It may mean that the anger that the individual is expressing towards others is turned toward you. It is still the responsibility of each and every one of us to stay within a calm spirit and hold that knowledge does not come easily to all of us.

I would like to not have to remind children that words being used are painful, I would like to not have to tell strangers that the words they are using are hurtful to others, I would like to be able to be certain that I don't harbor some of these thoughts and it is my responsibility to not act on them or repeat them. These things have been said so many times before in so much more elegant ways and yet it is something that I believe had to be addressed again so that I could move back to superficial things and let some of this pain go so that I can experience joy that is not always tinged with sorrow.

Peace.