An Inconvenient Truth

I know I haven't made many posts lately, but I have been a very busy man, especially this week. This week is the Senior League World Series in Bangor, so needless to say I've been busy covering teams from across the world. I did have the chance to meet scouts from the Oakland A's, Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants, among others, that were scouting some of the players from Curacao. One in particular was hitting 90-95 consistently on the radar gun, which is absurd for players of their age.

I am extremely tired, so I am not doing an in depth post on anything, but I would like to point out one thing quickly. While the Olympics have been great this year, I do have my concerns about their coverage. First off, NBC's reporters are doing a pretty terrible job, and many of their online hosts are doing as bad, which brings down the quality of the overall event some. Mainly though I want to point out NBC's lack of coverage when it comes to anything but sports. The volleyball coach that had a family member killed, the Tibet issue, the pollution issue and even issues with the Chinese Olympic teams. I mean, there is no way the Chinese Gymnasts are of age. In fact, even multiple Chinese media outlets and Chinese officials have admitted as such by mistake. Check it out. Not only that, but they are taken away from their families at an early age and placed in what are essentially gymnastics concentration camps, and are only allowed to see their family once a year. Or how about the fact that families are sometimes forced to abort children before they are born if they are girls. I'm only scratching the surface on the issues that are in China. If NBC took any time at all to report on some of these issues, to show the injustices going on in this communist country, maybe they could start changes.

Oh, and lets not forget the fact that the opening ceremony fireworks on tv were actually computer generated, and that the little girl that sang during the ceremony was lip-syncing because the girl that actually sang the song was deemed "not cute enough". And the Olympic Committee just sits there and accepts it, stating it was a "casting decision".

While these Olympics may have been good so far in terms of the sporting side of things, there are other issues at stake. Sure, we don't live in a perfect world, nor am I disillusioned enough to believe we will ever live in one. But improvements can be made if we try, and not trying is unacceptable, because while the Olympics have been great now, the real greatness would be achieved in the face of a little girl who's life was saved from the tragedies of a ethically starved nation.

~Aaron Jackson