In light of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., I think we need to ask ourselves a very hard question: Is hosting the Winter Olympics worth risking, right here in our own city, another such attack?
Putting so many citizens of the world in one place with so many media organizations on hand to cover all goings-on is, in my opinion, too dangerous to proceed with given the volatile situations at hand. We have learned now that it CAN happen here; the United States is not impervious to attacks on its own soil as we blithely and naively believed for so long.
The fact that nobody has yet claimed responsibility for these murders tells me that this brutal organization is not finished. The planning and financing that, obviously, went into their act of terror tells me that there is an organization much larger than Osama bin Laden’s small band of murderers behind this.
War has, in effect, been declared against us, and we have no idea by whom. To go forward with the Olympic games at this point would be irresponsible and foolish?suicidal.
Please take a look at all the unrest brewing in the world. Think about the senseless violence that seems to be escalating with each passing day. Consider the carnage in New York City and Washington, then ask yourself: Is two-and a-half weeks of international media attention adequate compensation for our living in a police state for months? Is it worth?in a best-case scenario?the loss of our peace of mind and quite possibly some of our beautiful and treasured landmarks? Most importantly, would the Olympics, should the worst kind of attack happen, be worth possibly tens of thousands of our lives? Should terrorists successfully bomb the Tooele storage depot, setting off the biological and nuclear weapons stored there, the dead would be the lucky ones.
Canceling the Olympics may seem, to some of you, to be a way of letting the terrorists win, but it is, in fact, just the opposite; it would take away from these madmen a perfect opportunity to further their agendas at the cost of incalculable priceless and irreplaceable lives. No amount of money?money that will come from your pockets and mine in the form of increased taxes?can buy security adequate enough to protect us.
We have a task we must complete before we even consider playing host to the Olympics; we need to get to the bottom of the conspiracy whose opening salvo of war occurred Tuesday. We must find each and every member of this group and ensure that they can never take another life. We must depose the governments of every country who have harbored, protected or even tolerated these killers. This is no time for Games.
Would two weeks of ski competitions on television seem worthwhile to anybody as they bury their children? I think not. Will people fondly remember the thrill of an international hockey game as they mourn lost family members and plan for a long, lonely life by themselves in an empty, shell-shocked home? Don’t bet on it. Will the memory of figure skaters pirouetting to the strains of an orchestra put a smile on your face as you lie convulsing in a heap of people, dying from exposure to toxic nerve gas? I doubt it.
The Olympics, despite the hyperbole, are but mere games.
Chester C. Ward