Reflections on the Beijing Olympics

Seven years ago, China was awarded the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing. At that time, they thought it would cost $2 billion, but as of the opening of the games, they had spent $4 billion.

China has a population of 1.3 billion million people. There are 56 different ethnic groups and we are told 16 different dialects. What a country.

I heard that in the last 10 years or so, China has lifted more people out of poverty than any other country.

I can hear some say, "But it is a dictatorship" and this is true. They won't allow any criticism of how they are spending money. They tore down homes to build the Olympic buildings and have put in prison some folks who disagree with them.

Still, these Olympic Games put China on the map for the world to see. So far, I think the Olympics have done more good than harm.

The fantastic opening ceremonies showed the tremendous progress China has made during the last 10 years.

The Bird Nest, the main Olympic building, had a capacity crowd of 91,000 at the opening ceremony. President Bush was one of 800 world leaders present.

Do you remember several months ago there were thousands of folks who didn't want him to go because of China's treatment of Tibet? He had the courage to say we must keep politics out of the Olympics.

This brought back memories of 1980 when the Winter Olympic Games were held in Lake Placid, my hometown.

Then, the International Olympic Committee was meeting in Lake Placid to decide if we should send a team to the summer Olympics to be held in Russia.

If you recall Russia was fighting in Afghanistan. To my surprise, the committee pushed by President Carter stopped U.S. athletes participating in the Russian Summer Olympics.

It was one of the few times I disagreed with our President. Keep politics out of the Olympics is a positive theme.

Do you remember how the Olympics were restarted?

After World War I, a French father and a German father became friends. They were angry that their children were killed in the war.

They thought, let us reorganize the Olympics and have our grown-up children compete on sport field and not the battlefield.

Today we see over 12,000 world athletes from over nearly 200 countries talking, competing, and making friends with each other on the sport field.

What a way to celebrate the Olympics.

Bob Pendleton

Elk Grove Village