Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Party-Poopers in San Francisco: Partisans, Nudists, and the Olympic Torch

The Olympic torch makes one stop in North America: San Francisco. Runners came to carry the torch, people came to see the runners, and as I'm writing, both those groups are getting frustrated by an assortment of:
  • Tibetans yearning for freedom
  • Chinese convinced that Tibet is a Chinese province
  • Nudists who want Olympic athletes to compete in the buff
San Francisco's finest were caught off-guard, when someone in city hall decided to change the route. So, apparently, were some runners, and everybody who came to San Francisco to see the torch being carried.

As much as I appreciate the problems of the people in Tibet, the pride of conquest that some Chinese feel, and the crowd-pleasing potential of an all-nude Olympics, I'm disappointed that a gaggle of party-poopers ruined a public event for thousands of uninvolved people.

One bit of good news: nobody seems to have been seriously hurt, and no buildings were torched.

More at
at

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 10, 2008 at 7:39 PM

    Don't be a wuss, I'm sure the lads at the Boston Tea Party spoiled some people's nights sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brian H. GillApril 11, 2008 at 10:28 AM

    True enough: although there was a rather more direct connection between the British tea and the revolutionaries' dispute with George III's government, than there was between the torch-runners and the assorted Tibetans, nudists, and animal-rights protesters in San Francisco.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting.