Swim and Sink

I was going to do it.

For some time now, I have written on this blog open letters to champion swimmer and my all-time Olympic heartthrob, Janet Evans, regarding my thoughts about the next Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.  Now, with Donald Trump's dictatorial powers ascendant and with the regime bearing down on American cities run by Democratic administrations with military force - including LA - I had planned to write her in her capacity as the 2028 Olympics' chief athletic officer expressing my fear that holding the Olympics under the circumstances Trump has put this country in would be a disaster.  I had planned to tell her how more than a few pundits I've read fear that Trump will extort conditions from Los Angeles and from the state of California to secure the Games, and how he plans to further consolidate his power over Los Angeles through use of federal prerogatives, military occupation like what just transpired in LA and what is now transpiring in Washington, and just plain brute force.  I was going to tell her that his use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, his newly reorganized secret police, would complicate things further for guests in this country here to participate in or attend the Olympics.  And I was going to tell her in my letter that I wanted to see the Games canceled and possibly relocated to another city in another country as immediately as possible.

And on top of all that, I was going to end with a happy birthday wish to her.  (She turns 54 today.)

But I didn't write and send this letter to Janet Evans as planned.  See, in order to mail a letter to her, I had to look up the address of the Olympic Organizing Committee in Los Angeles and send it there.  That's just it; I couldn't find such an address.  I Googled for any postal address I could have mailed a letter to, but nothing came up.  Even worse, I went to the official Web site for the 2028 Olympics and did not find any contact information for anyone whatsoever.  All I found was a lousy sign-up field for newsletters.  If the organizing committee is working out of some nondescript office building, the address must be a state secret.

Janet Evans, in addition to being my only sports-celebrity crush ever, is a woman I obviously have great respect for, and so I felt that, as a fan and as someone who despises Donald Trump what a cold passion, I felt it was necessary to contact her, explain my lifelong fondness for her, and to be brutally honest as a fan of hers and as a U.S. citizen - that I felt the Games must not go on here.  That is obviously not an option at the moment and may not be an option at all.  Perhaps I've been saved from utter embarrassment by being unable to write such a letter, as Janet Evans would likely have sent me a scathing reply and told me that I must not bring politics into the Olympics.  Or, maybe she would have said she understands my position but respectfully disagrees with it.  But I guess I may never know.

I'll keep trying to look for an address in which to contact Janet Evans by postal or electronic mail.  By the time I find something, it may be too late to express my thoughts.  In the meantime, I have to ponder whether or not to write another Olympic swimming champion, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, the current president of the International Olympic Committee.  But considering the reaction that I got from a spokesman from her predecessor, Thomas Bach - that Trump was democratically elected and that the will of the voters must be respected - I don't think I'll have any look with her either.