sadnews08's Blog

       China. Womens Gymnastics Team Gold medal.  Was it fairly won?  For once, the scoring was not a huge problem filled with scandals and obvious favoritism, not enough to change the outcome.   Falls are falls, and enough of them cost big points.  But what about the legal Olympic age of the athletes involved?

      Those unfamiliar with the sport of womens gymnastics, those who only watch the event every 4 years in the Olympics, may not be aware that this has been a concern for many many years. Other countries in the past have also snuck small youthful gymnasts onto their teams. But why?

          Most people know that even in our country, the development of a world class gymnast begins very early. Many move away from home by age 11 or so to train at the best camps with the best coaches year round.  It is much the same for ice skaters, tennis players and other sports too.  Here  it is voluntary, and parents can of course visit or remove them.  But these girls in China were chosen while in pre-school and directed to this intensive national program years ago, with little parental control left over their children.  Since gymnastics depends so much on quick aerial movements of great difficulty, the age/weight concern is important.   You may have everything going perfect one year and all wrong the next.   Back in '87, the US had a fantastic  young gymnast who won several events at the Pan AM games. By the next year for '88 Olympics, she had matured , grown up, and her performance level was not the same.  She barely made the team and did not shine in Seoul as predicted a year earlier. This is the gamble, the risk taken when developing a young gymnast.    Much of their movement and skills depends on where and how they can control, move that center of gravity.  That CG is key, and predictable, manageable, when the girls are of right size,shape,due to age.   They have fewer injuries when young, heal a big faster too at that age.  A couple years later with maybe a history of leg injuries or surgeries even, what are their chances to make that successful team effort then?

        So when this girl grows older, she adds a few inches, some shape to her chest, and widens in the pelvic region of course with maturity.    You have no idea what kind of chaos this throws into their once smooth stunts and movements that had become second nature to them.    Timing is off. Body won't go where they think they are tossing it, rotational physics change and for some, the end is near.    For a  strong nationalist team concerned on ethnic pride and world dominance like China, do you risk losing your perfect gymnast in a couple years before the next Olympic chance arrives?  No, you change the birthdates in the cause of national pride and cheat.

         Certainly it is not fair, but you can see the rationalization of China IF these girls were under the Olympic age limit.  They were reaching their best potential very fast.   They were small, easy to 'spot' on the events,  had great strength to weight ratios, and ready to win at home in 2008 for great national pride.  And being from a Communist country where they can control anything and have government support and denail of wrong doing, they probably chose to change the birthdates on their official documents. Who's gonna know?  How can you check the records in a nation of over a billion people where Mao had them all dressed alike for over 40 years?   Confused? Easily.

            In fairness to all Olympic athletes,  just as they have taken away track and field medals for steroid and drug abuses later discovered,  it would be great if the IOC would revoke the team China and any individual medals when hard evidence of the underage athletes is presented.  Chances are slim, but it would be fair for sure.  You can guess they have been very careful in covering their tracks on this one though.

    Very glad to see all the great sensible comments on Fox news the other day in response to the once again intentionally racist and unproductive 'skip school' idea that Senator Meeks came up with.   And of course, nothing makes less sense than to go confirm the fears of many neighborhoods my threatening to show up and enroll for school.  And choose the successful white community that in his mind will respond with the most shock, horror, fear or whatever he expected to achieve.   He totally missed the chance to spin this in a positive way.   Imagine if these were his words instead:

         " Our children too have great potential and our children are eager to learn, given the economic opportunity.  With that in mind, I propose you do yoru best to spread out to our nearby communities and attempt to enroll your students there.   Do your best for your children and move out of Chicago shcools where the environment has stiffled your childs educational chances.   Get a rental in the district,  live a frugal few years, sacrifice and change your lives around with a new start in a better community as best you can;  all for the future of your children's generation.  Maybe this action will get the attention of Chicago school authorities and other state legislators to better fund and better use the money spent for all students. "

      Surprising? Yes. What a positive statement, a challenge for parents to make life better for their children. But no, not from the black leadership that comes from Chicago political and religious officials.  Instead it's always about race, it is always about making a statement with an unwanted appearance or march into a fearing community that they intend to intimidate.   They choose to promote the fears that are out there, by rushing your schools in numbers  to ruin your preciously wonderful rich white suburban life,  by just showing up.   And he wonders why there is such a response?  Because this is the implied  threat that black leaders love to use.  Just show up, and you can get what you want due to the fears of whites.  How awful, what a terrible example or lesson this is to your children.  It shouts out, 'use your race to create fears and to get whatever you want even if you can't earn it fairly by yourself.'   It is criminal, really, since unregistered or falsly registered students do not belong in schools they do not support by tax dollars.   

   So as we can see, it is not just the bad example of poorly educated but overpaid pro athletes or rap 'artists' ( I use that word so uncomfortably)   claiming to be role models we must try to get the kids to ignore, it is also the similarly poor role models that their so called 'ministers' and elected officials turn out to be. 

    Meeks could have thought this out and made a productive statement.  Instead he played the race card again;  maybe to try and raise his status somehow in the minds of the already way too undereducated and misinformed people he wants to impress in his community.  

I'm one frustrated voter who has become sooo tired of the 'race card' being thrown about in the current Democratic race for president.  I do believe that Obama has great charisma, and probably will win both the nomination and the popular vote. But my logic is somewhat based on the history of racial movements and support.  Here's the rough numbers as I see it:   The black vote has been shown to be going near 90% for Obama for months, higher than their normal Democratic favor of the past.  Gathering from the past 2 presidential elections, the overall US vote has been split  very close at 50/50 for Dems or Republican candidate. BUT this season, with the same near split, it will be heavily influenced to the Obama factor by race alone, thus tipping the scale to Obama to become the next president.   I look forward to either his or Ms. Clintons nomination and election this fall.

         As far as the current issues between Obama and his former pastor's comments, well his speech on Tuesday didn't clear up much in my opinion.  Why would members of a place of worship dwell on the same old messages of hate, racism, and complaints?   After more than 50 years of the civil rights movement, isn't it time for the black community, especially through their well respected and most visible leader in years to declare  'we're equal' and ready to join AMERICAN society and AMERICAN positive growth?  They can't fall back on race accusations forever.  Stand tall, and just get on with life!  It's time to get rid of the obvious racial separatist organizations and activities. Blacks win Academy Awards and music awards.  And arts, talents, sports, etc. of course.  So isn't it time to dump the blacks-only events where the main qualification to be a contestant is that you are an African American?   Black music, beauty contests, talent shows, etc.?  Don't they see that this is just another way of keeping themselves separated from the wonderful 'melting pot' of America that help build our nation through the mid 20th century?  

   My feelings in summary are. "Get over it: Join the program" and stop complaining. It's a new century and there are opportunities there to take.

Listen to Mr. Bill Cosby when he urges you to improve your own neighborhood within,  when he tells you to get better parenting skills, and control your urge to have endless unaffordable children in a one parent household.