Tag: Russia

A few months ago, I said I would boycott watching the Olympic Games in Sochi.  I will miss the extraordinary competition and the pomp and circumstance of this gathering of athletes from around the world.  But I cannot in good conscience support a spectacle hosted by a dictator thug who has declared homosexuality illegal and who has among his many infamous and dubious distinctions such as suppressing human rights and making a mockery out of the rule of law, has abetted and enabled the atrocious slaughter of innocents in the Syrian Civil War.

I recall history and remember with admiration Jesse Owens.  He won the Gold Medal in front of Adolf Hitler flouting and shattering the myth of Aryan supremacy.  It certainly would be wonderful irony and affront to the Russian regime for individuals who are homosexual to win Gold and stand atop the podium time and again.  I root for it, hoping it will happen, but I will not be watching when it does.  I will not support the commercial enterprise; I will not support the corrupt and disgusting regime no matter what lovely face Vladimir Putin attempts to show the world.  We know it is all merely show and it is contemptible.