Last week I was talking to a friend of Iranian descent. She shook her head and said,"I'll probably never go to Iran again---I'll never see my grandfather's grave." I shook my head and said, "When you live as long as I've lived, there are a lot of things that happen that you thought you'd never see."
Several have happened the past few weeks with the Olympics in Beijing.First, I thought I'd never see China open the doors to the world for an event such as the Olympics. During Mao's rule, the door to China was shut to journalists from almost all countries. Click here for a brief summary of Post-war China. To allow European or American journalists in was unthinkable much less allowing the world in for the Olympics.
Second, I thought I'd never see
the Russians being dominated by Americans and Chinese in gymnastics (I'm not counting Rhythmic Gymnastics). Click here for more details on Russian dominance of the sport. OK, technically Nastia was born in Russia, but. . . While speaking of gymnastics, we will never see the truth about the Chinese gymnasts' ages. Anybody who has seen as many 12-16 year olds as I have (many of Asian descent), could see that these were not 16 year olds. I spotted the missing baby teeth immediately on one of the girls. It's not about the medals, but I hate to see these children exploited.
Third, I thought I'd never see the Russians so far down on medal count. As of Sunday AM, the United States has 110, China 100 and Russia just 72. But, wait a minute, how many would the old Soviet Union have? Ukraine had 27, Belarus 16, Kazakhastan 13, and the other 9 republics had 38 making a total of 166 for the old Soviet Union---wow! There's a lesson in that for the United States and China.Fourth
, I never thought I'd see Mark Spitz record broken. But, Munich was such a traumatic Olympics with the Palestinian terrorists killing the Israelis (another thing I never thought would happen). When Mark Spitz won those medals, it was the much needed ointment for that pain. Click here for more details about the Munich Olympics. Reading that article, I had never realized 
that Spitz (who is Jewish) had to leave the Olympics early because officials were afraid he would be a terrorist's target. Congratulations Michael, but we still love you Mark for restoring our faith in humanity!Finally, I don't think I'll ever see a more beautiful opening ceremony than in Beijing. Click here for a YouTube slide show.
3 comments:
You didn't even mention (which would have been an awesome "name drop") that Mark Spitz live(d) next door to your cousin!
seem to have mastered the embedded links! ;)
great post... chock full of historical info. were you thinking of me when you did all that? :)
Yes, Rachel, I was thinking of you snoozing through all of the history lessons at school and home!
Yes, Rebecca, I thought of mentioning that but couldn't really work that in.
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