IN THEORY:

When China won the right to host the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, there were hopes it would encourage the country to develop a deeper respect for human rights. But with reports that the government is still cracking down on protesters and others seen as threatening the “harmony” of the Games, some view the prospects of human rights reform in China with pessimism. Do you think the Olympics could help foster reform in China, or was it just a mistake and the International Olympic Committee should avoid letting totalitarian regimes host the Summer Games?

Any country that hosts the Olympics has the world’s spotlight on it. The riches of its unique culture and its contributions to the world community will be on display, but so will its problems and shortcomings.

Host countries should not use “the harmony of the games” as an excuse to crush dissent. It is helpful for the host country to hear what other countries think of its policies, though we should not expect to see immediate reforms. Changes in values and principles are not easy to trace or measure, but history shows that they do occur.

As a condition for winning the bid, Olympic rules should require host countries to grant visas to athletes who qualify, regardless of their political involvements, and set guidelines for how protesters in the country for the games will be treated.

These realities should be a part of the equation when Olympic bids are evaluated.

The spirit of the Olympics has nothing to do with democracy.

In ancient Greece, there might have been a democratic state like Athens, but there were many Greek and military tyrants.

Slavery and totalitarian regimes were quite common. These tiny Greek cities on the eastern side of the Aegean held no more than the fringes of Asia Minor. The fear of Persian invasion actually brought the Greeks together to compete in the Olympic games.

China is a world power that must be recognized. Who can ever forget Jesse Owens in track and field in the summer Olympics of Berlin in the 1930s after the rise of Adolf Hitler?

Hitler and Nazi Germany were center stage, not the athletes. When the Olympics were brought back to Germany again in 1972, the Israeli team was massacred by militant Muslims, and the world paused, and the Olympics continued. The Olympics are about sports and bringing the world together, not about politics.

If President Bush stayed in China during the Olympics, then the United States has sanctioned the Chinese government and its hosting of the games.

Rabbi Marc Rubenstein

Temple Isaiah

China’s assurances made in 2001 to obtain the 2008 Summer Games were clearly not sincere.

The country’s leaders wanted to host the Olympics to display their powerful status, but never intended to abide by the requirements for media access or proper treatment of potential competitors.

That said, the Olympics is not the proper occasion for the promotion of political or human rights disagreements by anyone.

The Olympics, as originally intended, should be simply a chance for the best athletes to show off world-class abilities, and visitors should follow the “when in Rome” dictum.

The Olympics committee knew the Chinese government might not abide the expected behavior. It should have demanded sworn agreements to specific requirements, the violation of which would be very embarrassing, at the least.

Thus, this year’s games do not promise significant reform in China, as happened in Korea in 1988, but there may eventually be positive effects from person-to-person contacts.

Jerry Parks

Member, Humanist Assn. of Orange County