Dan's Papers - May 9, 2008 - Twentysomething...By David Lion Rattiner

My friend Chris Jarvis, from Ontario, Canada, is a marathon runner, an inspirational public speaker for diabetes (he has type 1), an Olympic rower, scientist and all around superhero. I had the honor of rowing with Chris on the Northeastern crew team.

Through sport, he has been able to translate advocacies for the importance of exercise and human rights around the world. He is a silver medalist for the Canadian Under-23 National Team, a gold medalist for the Canadian and U.S. Nationals in rowing, and has his eyes on the gold at the Olympic games in Beijing.

But he is concerned that he may not compete there.

As we all know a protest over having the Olympics in China is gaining international attention because of their reputation for lack of human rights. It's an embarrassment for China and the modern world that these kinds of things still go on. However, in my opinion, bringing sport into the battle against this kind of thing is absolutely ridiculous, and protesting the Olympics makes about as much sense as protesting going to the movies to show you are against the war in Iraq.

I don't understand what not having the Olympics would accomplish. It seems perfectly clear to me that not having the Olympics would simply add more division and sadness across the globe, as well as a decrease in hope. How does this help anything? Protesting the Olympics seems more like an act of revenge against China's human rights policies, and every levelheaded person understands that pursuing revenge on an international scale causes nothing but horrible things. The worst events in modern history have been based on this emotion that self-indulgent people who enjoy power use to get support for a cause.

The Olympics brings us together, which is good. The world competes and nobody dies, which also is good. It is revolved around the principles of honor, leadership, strength, health, dignity, pride and endurance, which, last time I checked, are all good things. The Olympics is a global event that brings the world together to share in cultures, celebrate our athletes and experience national pride.

Should we prevent athletes who are from countries that we don't like from competing? Is the world so divided that we should all just race and compete in our own countries because everybody else is so bad?

Tell me, seriously, what is the point of mixing something that is so bad with something that is so good? Is it for actual change to happen? Or is it really just to make things worse than they already are? It seems pretty obvious to me that the latter is the answer.

I look at the Olympics in China as an opportunity for the leaders and athletes of the world to go to China and bring light to the issues there. Let the people of China feel the embarrassment of their record for themselves and let them show their desire to be a part of the global community by showing the world just how positive a force they can be as the Olympic host. Having the Olympics there will encourage such action. That is what the Olympics should be.

Is Chris an advocate of China's human rights record? No, he is not. In fact, he is the opposite of it, and so is everybody else. And like everybody else, except the protestors, he understands the value, importance and power of sport, and its ability to bring so many different people together with smiles.