A New York Olympiad?

As the 2004 Olympics in Athens approach, New York is still in the running to host the Games in 2012. The Web site for the committee trying to get the Games for the Big Apple is right here.

The committee has some good arguments for hosting the Olympics in New York, the main one being that all the events can take place within a reasonable radius from the proposed Olympic Village site on the East River in Queens, directly across from the United Nations complex in Manhattan. I doubt, though, if New York will live its Olympic dream. It's like this; Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada, is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, making it less likely that a North American city will be chosen for the next summer Olympiad immediately thereafter. And while the Games are awarded to a city, not a country, the idea of awarding the Games to a city in the United States in the shadow of an unjust and globally unpopular war seems unlikely.

New York emerged as a prime candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and all the goodwill and sympathy for Americans that followed. Bush, alas, squandered all of it on the war in Iraq. The International Olympic Committee will possibly spurn New York as an act of retaliation against American arrogance and Bush's disrupting of the peace and goodwill in the world that the Olympic movement stands for.

Of course, the IOC won't make their decision on where to hold the 2012 Olympics until early next year. If John Kerry gets elected President in November, they might just let New York host the world's greatest sporting event eight years hence.

The bottom line - if you want to see the Games in New York, vote for Kerry! :-D