Lopez Lomong- The American Dream

Today, Lopez Lomong will march into the Bird’s Nest stadium as both the United States flagbearer and a walking symbol of the American dream.
Lomong was voted by the assorted team captains to the honor of leading the U.S. contingent into the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games before a crowd of 90,000 at the stadium and a worldwide television audience.

The 1,500-meter track runner will carry the American flag only 13 months after becoming a U.S. citizen.

I think for many immigrants coming into America an surviving the conflicts within their own country, this is indeed a symbol of a dream come true.

Lomong lived for nearly a decade in the Kakuma Refugee Camp (Kenya) while the a civil war devasted Sudan, killing roughly two million civilians and forcing another four more to flee their homes.

Lomong had never heard of the Olympics before 2000, when friends at the refugee camp in Kenya talked him into running five miles and then he paid five shillings to watch Michael Johnson run in Sydney on a black-and-white TV set with a fuzzy screen. That’s when he knew he wanted to be a runner.

Marion Jones Relay Team Giving Up Medals

Sadly Marion Jones situation has affected her past team members. Team mates of disgraced American Olympic champion Marion Jones's paid the price for her use of banned substances when they were stripped of the relay medals they won. (Reuters).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), ruled that the U.S. teams that won the gold medal in the 4X400 meters and bronze in the 4x100 would lose their medals due to the fact that Jones admitted she had used steroids.

It is all so sad. I really feel for the team.

The IOC executive board had yet to decide on how the medals that Jones and her team mates won in Sydney would be re-allocated, Davies added. Continued...

Obama Asks Bush to Boycott Bejing

Barack Obama joined Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday in calling for President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Activists are urging world leaders to stay away from the ceremonies to underscore concerns about China's human rights record, its handling of recent unrest in Tibet and its relationship with Sudan.

Obama said a boycott "should be firmly on the table," but that a decision should be made closer to the Games. I feel that China should not have the Olympics, however they did win it fair and square in the vote. China wants a genocide of Tibet. How can an event that is suppose to promote global unity be held in a country that is denying people of their rights. The brutal oppression seems to be approved of by the Western World if we do not step in and take a stance

Source: Yahoo News