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Take Note and Long Remember!

The 2008 Paralympic Games opened in Beijing today. It's not getting much play here, but according to the Times:

The opening ceremony for the Beijing Paralympics on Saturday was another incredible spectacle, comparable in scale and pageantry to the opening for the Olympics on Aug. 8.

They even had someone fly up in a wheelchair to light the flame!

Many soldiers maimed in Iraq will be participating. We can't watch it on TV, but it will be available on streaming video online.

Check out a video of U.S. troops training for the Paralympics here!

The Reality of Life in America Today

Well, now that we know who is running with whom and for what, there are a few things I can tell you for sure:

1) Whether you like it or not, Change of some kind is what you are getting, although it may not be the Change you anticipate ... in this matter, the choice has been made no matter how you cast your vote.

2) The election will be oh-so-close and down-to-the-wire until the very last day. The drama will end in a landslide of electoral votes, and afterward the pundits will say the outcome was obvious all along. In fact, if they could create a DNA-regenerated candidate from a combination of F.D.R. and Ronald Reagan, and put that combination candidate up against Bozo, 50% of the electorate would be violently Pro-Bozo.

3) Some conservative bloggers were having themselves over the addition of Sarah Palin to the McCain ticket, saying it will "bring over all of those bitter women who supported Hillary".

Let me get this straight: you WANT bitter women in your tent?

4) Either way, we got a lot of housecleaning to do, as truth-teller Thomas Friedman oraculates in the "Times" . After being in Beijing for the Olympics, he says the future is China.

Just call us "France".

Zai Jian, Zai Jian!

Well the two weeks of global celebration and togetherness have concluded. The ceremonies haven't even been broadcast here in the U.S. yet at this writing, and the press has already moved on to obsessing about the Democratic Convention in Denver.

I was by all accounts a gorgeous Olympics. The immense opening and closing ceremonies especially were overwhelming. David Brooks of "The New York Times" wrote an excellent article entitled "Harmony and the Dream"  comparing and contrasting Chinese and American culture, pointing out, for instance, "If you show an American an image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in the tank and what it is doing. If you ask a Chinese person to describe a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish swim."

Darcy Zhang remarked, "This article is good ,explain many things , now i could understand you better, i see why you are so surprised with the ceremony, that many people act like one must make you feel unbelievable , but for me , it is nothing.that is the culture difference. We really don't care communism or captalism , we just wanna be rich and strong. and you know what is the good sign , i notice now China are like grown-ups, we no longer care what the other said about us .we are confident and open minded, the people don't care much about who win the medal and who is the first place .we just wanna to have fun and enjoy the game . we don't have to proof ourself to anyone , we know the world well and we know what we are doing."

Beijing looked to hosting the Olympics as their joining with and entree to the wider mainstream world. But this wish brings to mind a metaphor my friend Kim Martin once made about weddings. It goes something like:

"You plan for it for years, you make sure every detail is addressed and everything is perfect. On your wedding day, everybody comes from all over. The ceremony is gorgeous, every one is wearing their best clothes, everyone tells you how beautiful you are and what a handsome couple you make. The music is perfection, the dance is glorious, the decor is breathtaking, the cake is spectacular and the wedding night is bliss, and the next day you awaken ...

... and you're MARRIED."

More kindling

"The Christian Science Monitor" makes several salient and unimpeachable points on the He/Nastia fumarole.

Namely, He Kexin was damn good. They go on to say:

"It is clear that she could do what she did only because she is so small. For all her talent, 18-year-old American Nastia Liukin could not have done some of the releases and hand holds that He did. At 5-foot-3, 99 lbs., she is simply too big."

If the current Olympic age rules were extended to all international competitions, there would be no Shawn Johnson as world all-around champion last year because she's only 15.

More to the point, if the rules had been in effect prior to 1976, there would be no Nadia Comanici, thus leaving the world that much more unbearable.

A Classy Solution for Nastia

You have heard about it ... intestinal foul rumblings that some of the Chinese gymnasts were underaged; chiefly, that the gymnast He Kexin, who supposedly deprived Nastia Liukin of one of her gold medals in a byzantine tiebreaker, was only 14 and thus should relinquish her medal.

You know I'm beginning to think that the classiest thing Nastia Liukin could do is head-off the drama-mamas at the pass and publicly refuse to accept any gold medals gained from the possibility that her Chinese counterpart might be underage.

1) In the spirit of true sportsmanship, the medals don't matter anyway, do they? It would be the ultimate American thing to do.

2) Everyone agreed that this is the new scoring system and ties can no longer both get gold medals. If they both had received gold medals, there wouldn't be so much as a whisper about all of this underage business.

3) If everyone was so concerned about underaged contestants, they should have withdrawn their participation in the competition to begin with. But nobody did that, did they?

4) The media is bored and is just looking for something to do. Refusing additional medals would encourage them to focus on, oh, I dunno, THE ELECTION, IRAQ, OSSETIA, BREAST CANCER, you name it.

5) "Hey! Hey! The Chinese gymnast already broke the rules because she was too young, so your whole arguement is bogus!" you say. Oh really? The Chinese gymnast He Kexin did not have a choice whether or not to compete. It wasn't up to her. She should not be punished. She was damn good and earned her medal. What is accomplished here?

6) If He Kexin IS proven too young, accepting a forfeited gold medal tastes and smells like sour Chardonnay grapes; no, something worse ... something ... corrupted. Because in the end, Nastia was beat fair and square according to the agreed upon scoring rules, and now no additional gold medal to add to the glistening pile would erase the added humiliation of being beaten by a fourteen year old.

The best thing to say is: "Here's to London and a rematch in 2012!"