Land of the Free?

The Olympics have been a bit of a strange topic in the Scott house this year. Usually in love with the games, we have both felt a bit torn about supporting them due to their location. On one side of the issue, we feel we should support the athletes as they have nothing to do with the politics. On the other side, there's the politics: who wants to give support to the Chinese overlords? We certainly do not.

And so we decided to abstain from watching the opening ceremonies, usually a favorite for us. We would watch the athletics, but fewer than usual.

And so tonight, we tuned in to watch Michael Phelps not only win his first gold medal of the games, but also break a world record. It was exciting, it was heartwarming, it was Olympic magic.

That is until we watched the medal ceremony. He stepped up, they announced the National anthem. The piped in music began to play, incorrectly. Not only was the anthem WRONG, (playing the instrumental version of "and the twilight's last gleaming," three times in a row without moving on) the song finally progressed and when the apex of the song was about to be reached, the part where the lyrics read "and the land of the free!" The part when everyone screams and whistles and shouts for joy, well the song stopped. Silence. No More. They just cut it off, right at "and the land of the..." Nada.

They didn't start it up again, they didn't hit rewind. That was it. Medal ceremony over. Get off the stage, Americans.

I'd like to point out that President Bush was there, in the stands, waving a flag. As was the former President Bush. Now as most of you know, I am not a big fan of our current sitting president. However, he is the president and must be treated with a certain amount of respect. I find it pretty audacious to disrespect the president and our country on such a grand scale. I find it not at all coincidental that not only was our National anthem played incorrectly when the PRESIDENT was there, but that they cut if off at the line "land of the free." Some may think it was a mere accident, but I think not, and here's why.

Just yesterday, President Bush gave his regular Saturday morning radio address regarding human rights in China. His speech included a strong admonition on Chinese freedom. His words were not well received by the Chinese government (which is true for all dissenting opinion, which is the point of his address.) And thus, they were greatly offended by him.

Tit for tat, they botch our National anthem, they cut it off at the line that refers to our nation as the "land of the free." They do this at the opening medal ceremony where an American wins, the one most everyone will watch because it's Michael Phelps, America's hero; the ceremony President Bush is attending. It's embarrassing, it's offensive. It gets the point across.

I am certain our national anthem will be played correctly for the remainder of the games, however. No more "mistakes" will most likely be made. This wasn't a technical difficulty, this was a political statement, and it was very, very clear.

Ahh the Olympics, so nice that we can join together as nations, united in one common goal.