This will be a conflicted column, one of those with more questions than answers, more wishful thinking than reality.
The topic is China, and the question is why nobody, in light of recent developments, is questioning going ahead with the Beijing Olympics.
We are two months from the start, in the same country where 70,000 people died in a 7.9 earthquake May 12 and the lives of 200 times that many have been uprooted and changed forever. The best estimate is that 15 million people have lost their homes.
And we don't even seem to ponder the disconnect between these Olympics and those people in ongoing misery?
I understand the geography. The Sichuan province is nearly 1,000 miles from Beijing. I also understand flesh and blood, and that should have nothing to do with geography.
Are not the life-and-death needs of one's people a higher priority than the entertainment needs of a sports-doting world, or the international image-building desires of a government?
The resources that will be used to put China in the international spotlight for 17 days in August -- to a world that still mostly envisions this country as a man standing in front of a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square -- will be massive. Could they not be better used on food, shelter and medical supplies?
Are we too far down the line that we can't turn back in an emergency? Because a lot has been spent, does that mean that we have to spend a lot more? Can we scale this down from extravaganza to a big track meet? Does this mean that, if NBC buys it, we have to come?
Blaming television, of course, is somewhat unfair, but it always feels good.
A more constructive approach might be to ponder our priorities, especially as they have to do with sports. We seem to need major athletic competitions and showcases for our validation. The Lakers do that to us in Los Angeles. The Olympics do that to us, a hundredfold, as a country.
It pits our high jumpers and team-handballers and rowers and all the rest against the world's. If we win, it seems to validate our way of life, much like we feel a need right now to make Tinseltown better than Beantown.
The Olympics happens on the biggest stage. Most of us will succumb to that little teardrop in the corner of our eye when our gymnast from Des Moines stands on the top of the platform and they play the national anthem.
