For as long as I can remember, the Summer Olympics has always been one of my favorite sporting events.
I remember being eight or nine years old, and every day during the games, I would alternate between being glued to the television watching the competitions and running around pretending to be a participant in the various events myself.
I was always, of course, a gold medalist.
It always was for me, and still is, an opportunity for healthy, spirited patriotism.
But we have to remember the Olympic games are much more than a showcase for athletic talent.
They are an opportunity for the nations of the world to come together and celebrate their great diversity alongside the essential humanness that we all share (the opening ceremony is always a great example of this). They provide a time to look past disputes and conflicts and to forget, for maybe just a moment, how broken our world is.
This in mind, I must say that it is sickeningly ironic that the 2008 Summer Olympic games are scheduled to be in Beijing.
There has been a lot on the news lately about the situation in Tibet and odds are you know the basic story. The media has had a lot to say, but one of the most eye-opening things I have heard was from Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, a non-government organization that monitors human rights around the world.
Referencing the hundreds of peaceful protestors that have been arrested, he said, "Given the long and well-documented history of torture of political activists by China's security forces there is every reason to fear for the safety of those recently detained."
While this certainly sheds some light on the seriousness of the present situation, it is important to recognize that the key word in the quote by Adams is "history."
Despite what the Chinese government would have us believe - and many have been either buying into this or at least feigning ignorance - China has had quite a history of harsh oppression and blatant disregard for human rights.
During the Cold War, most Americans and much of Europe held fairly negative views toward China, which was and still is communist. However, in recent years public perception has changed a great deal.
As China's economic development has boomed, there seems to be a general feeling that China is becoming more open and more democratic.
Unfortunately, this is nothing more than the confusion of capitalism with democracy.
Chinese society is far from open and far from democratic.
As an officially atheist country, religious beliefs and practices are discouraged and highly regulated. Where it is unable to root out and destroy religion, the government has instead tried to control it.
Churches and houses of worship are required to register with the government and are highly regulated. Individuals and communities that refuse to comply with strict policies are harshly persecuted.
A perfect example of this is the Chinese government's treatment of the Catholic Church. In 1957, realizing that the Catholic Church was not going to bow to their restrictions, the government arrested and removed much of the church leadership and attempted to install their own people in order to gain control. The real Catholic Church - which was still independent from the government - was forced underground and its adherents, particularly its priests and bishops, faced terrible persecution.
But this is not ancient history. The Chinese government continues to prop up the state-sponsored Catholic church - it actually even claims to have the blessing of the pope - and has continued to persecute, imprison and even torture members of the underground Catholic Church.
The government's treatment of Protestants and Buddhists, and really any other religion which refuses to accept its control, has been just as harsh. Religious freedom is apparently nothing more than a joke. The government has even had the gall to ban athletes at the coming Olympics from bringing Bibles into the Olympic village.
The really crazy thing is that the Chinese constitution supposedly provides for freedom of belief.
The state of freedom of expression and speech in China is similarly dismal.
The government controls all the major news sources and radio, television, books, magazines and newspapers that have not received the blessing of the government are heavily restricted.
Writers, reporters and editors are closely monitored and those who stray from providing the officially sanctioned opinions of the government face anything from the loss of their jobs to long prison sentences.
This has been going on for years, but recently, there has been a great deal of unrest over the Chinese government's imprisonment of Internet bloggers and reporters who have posted unfavorable comments or stories on the Web.
This is the country in which, this summer, we are supposed to put aside our differences and celebrate that grand paradox of unity and diversity.
Given the current state of affairs, I don't think this is possible.
There have been rumblings recently of possible boycotts of the Olympics by France and even by the entire European Union. They would certainly be justified in doing so, and the United States should follow suit.
But a boycott shouldn't just be about Tibet. Even if the government of China cleans up its act in that situation, there is still a myriad of reasons not to go to Beijing. China has a lot of work to do, and to attend the Summer games would be to simply look the other way.
Luke Fischer is a sophomore history and philosophy major. Reach him at lukefischer@dailynebraskan.com.
