Protestors’ misguided efforts sullied volunteers’ contributions

November 03, 2009

Letter to Editor

I was at the B.C. legislature Friday night to watch my wife and daughter participate as dancers at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch welcoming ceremony.

They had rehearsed and prepared for this show for weeks in advance along with 150 other dancers organized through Stages Performance Arts School.

This was a truly inspiring spectacle to watch and it made them proud to be a part of this historic event.

The show was a huge success despite the efforts of a group of anti-Olympic protesters there to disrupt it.

After these malcontents blocked the progress of the torch relay, upsetting many by illegally blocking a major Victoria intersection, they made their way down to the legislature and proceeded to try and disrupt the show.

They crowded one side of the stage and threw glowsticks at police and shook their fists and shouted at those on stage.

They succeeded in frightening some of the younger members of the dance troop but little else.

These ne’er-do-well protestors and their supporters wouldn’t understand the kind of pride of participation these performers were experiencing.

Their goal is to oppose everything that doesn’t fit into their narrow definition of what is a worthwhile public expenditure.

These misguided people complain that the Olympics are a waste of tax dollars.

Yet the funding actually comes from a combination of corporate and public funding and everyone in the community will share the legacy of these games by way of new infrastructure and increased tourism.

It is disappointing that some in the media give these protesters top billing, focusing on their disruptive antics and completely ignoring the positive contributions of volunteers that contribute to our community.

Scott Bruce

Saanich

Chicago was lucky to lose bid to host the Summer Olympics

The Our View’s title was well done and the editorial cartoon by Ole Heggen was even better. The torch and the Olympics are but an ephemera, albeit one that has and will continue to cost B.C. citizens many millions of dollars and distract us from the essential civic supports we need.

When I was younger, I, too, bought into the sweetness of world competition by dedicated amateurs -- and that still happens, bleed their hearts.

But the Olympics increasingly seem more like the lotus plant that grows most luxuriously in manure-sweetened mud. Enough of these propaganda schemes.

The Commonwealth Games here were much more in the spirit of Olympiad than the recent IOC extravaganzas. I saw the police-escorted cavalcade on the Pat Bay Highway and was sadly reminded of all the U.S. TV shows where the head guy is swept from place to place in a security bubble. These Olympics will be remembered as the “Security Olympics.”

We citizens, who will pony up the cash for years for this party, can only gawk from the sidelines -- hicks in our own house.

Chicago was lucky -- it lost its bid, high-powered boosterism notwithstanding.

Chicagoans, count your blessings!

Ed Lyons

Saanich

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Protestors’ misguided efforts sullied volunteers’ contributions

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