I certainly understand why people all over the world are protesting the upcoming Olympic games in China. The Olympic Committee chose to over look some of the questionable tactics of the Chinese government in favor of the almighty dollar, and so far that had led to the most politically charged lead-in to an Olympic event since the 1984 Games, when then the Soviet Union chose not to show (now THAT my friends is a fantastic run-on sentence). And even though it has been known for several years, that the Olympic games were going to be in China, I get why the protesters have waited until this year to step up their protests. The mainstream media usually waits until the year of the Olympic games before they really focus on the preparation, the location, the athletes etc. All that being said there are two things about this situation that bother me:

1)What about the athletes? Nine times out of 10, Olympic athletes have an even more limited window with which to shine than do the athletes in the major sports. The Olympics serve as their stage, and when politics (and illegal drugs I might add) get in their way, it overshadows their accomplishments. And it thrusts them into the uncomfortable position have to either get on board with a possible boycott or to ignore the political issues and be viewed as outcasts, when in reality, they just want to compete. And the second thing that bothers me about these protests, is the number of people who keep trying to attack the carriers of the Olympic torch. Do these people not realize that these carriers have fire in their hands? And do they not understand how even the kindest of people, when attacked by angry protesters, are legitimate threats to lose their mind and burn everyone in sight? There's gotta be a better way.

So back in December, I wrote a blog entry about women's basketball, and I was openly questioning people as to why they didn't watch and support them. After watching last night's game I'll no longer question those people. I had to watch last night's game, because I committed to writing about it, but I hated every minute of it. As much as I like to look at Candace Parker, even she wasn't enough to sustain my interest. The game was sloppy, Stanford's best player, Candace Wiggins never really showed up, and at one point in the game, 5 minutes had gone by, and no one scored. I wanted to throw my laptop at the screen. I had to somehow summon an article out of that garbage, and I'm ashamed to show it to anyone, because the game was that bad in my humble opinion. So from this day forward, I will no longer pressure anyone to watch college basketball. But still support the WNBA..

Waiting - Rachelle Ferrell