Why I will protest and boycott this year's Olympics

This has been a wild week! Found out that someone I know was actually DETAINED in Vietnam for trying to visit pro-Democracy advocates, only to be released and sent out of the country about 24 hours later. Got to visit the family and realized how much I missed my parents, my sister, and my little brother. Still prepping for the LSATs and revising my goal to 170. 170! That's going to be insane.

Anyway, for me, the big issue of the week is that the Olympic Torch will be in San Francisco. This morning, protesters actually climbed the CABLES of the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl pro-Tibet banners. That actually got me PUMPED. I looked to see what else was happening and found out that communities all over the world were coming together to stand with the oppressed Tibetans.

Some may ask how I can oppose what the Vietnamese community in San Jose did around the Little Saigon name and support what people are doing now to oppose China hosting the Olympics. That's easy. There are two reasons.

1. Cause - I said before that protest is an extremely confrontational tactic and should only be used in situations where life or death is involved, or those who are protesting will suffer from egregious harm if they did not fight back. China's crackdown of the Tibetan monks and heartless murder of innocent Vietnamese fishermen in the Paracel and Spratley Islands qualify. The name of a street does not.

2. Approach - Those who oppose the actions of the protesters are not ostracized, isolated, or blackballed for their opinions. Coalitions are being built around the issue, instead of dissatisfied Tibetan monks trying to throw a tantrum to get their way. Education and dialogue are encouraged instead of being seen as questioning "the elders." For this issue, for what is happening to the monks and the fishermen, a hunger strike is justified. Not a street name.

Some believe that the Olympics should only focus on athletics, and not politics. Honestly, that has NEVER been the case. The Olympics is the microcosm of international dispute. The Soviet Union and the countries in the Communist bloc did not participate in any Olympic event until 1952 (in fact, they tried to organize their own version of it called Spartakiad in 1928). Germany used the Olympics in 1936 to spread its message of hate. The first boycott of the Olympics happened in 1956, when the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland boycotted the Melbourne Games because of the violent crackdown on Hungarians who were fighting for freedom against the Soviet Union. That same year, Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the games because of Israel's attack on the Suez Canal. Since then, boycotts have occurred for many reasons.

The Olympics are not some Godly event that can remain neutral in the face of cultural genocide and propaganda pumping. In fact, when the Olympics are used as the vehicle to hide the oppression that happens in the countries that host it, the spirit of the games have already been betrayed.