Hi D.



You know I love you for all you do for the sport of skating. I also know
that you listen to your skaters, so I'm hoping you'll be willing to hear a
request from this skater regarding skaters and the Olympic Torch Relay:



Normally, I'd be all for skaters helping police with crowd control,
especially when there's an opportunity to get skating and skaters on
television in the process. But these Olympics are controversial for good
reason. China is the worst air and water polluter in the world, callously
brushing off world environmental organizations' pleas for reform with
excuses like "The empire is large, and the emperor far away." China has the
worst human rights abuse record of any nation. They execute more people in
three months than the entire rest of the world combined does in a year. In
China, if you so much as post something on the internet suggesting that it
might indeed be time for the Chinese government to bring it's policies on
pollution or human rights or democracy into line with the rest of the modern
world, you can expect to be hunted down, beaten and thrown into prison
indefinitely.



Finally, China has kicked all foreigners out of Tibet, and shut down
internet access and telecommunications to the outside world in the wake of
the Tibetans' recent protests demanding release of previous protesters who
have been rotting away in Chinese prisons for years. What do you think the
Chinese are doing to those protesters while the world cannot see? I
traveled to Tibet twice in my role as a Zephyr Guide. I saw for myself how
the Chinese abuse the Tibetans while raping and pillaging their lands,
temples and culture. These days I am worried sick about my Tibetan
co-guide, our camp cook and his young staff, the nuns and monks we met on
our travels, etc. I cannot reach any of them. I do not know if they have
fallen victim to the violent crack down the Chinese have meted out, or the
middle-of-the-night home searches where the Chinese cart off anyone who is
not an immediate family member on the assumption that they must therefore be
a protester hiding from the police.



The Tibetans were and are risking their lives to raise awareness of the
brutal oppression they are suffering under the Chinese occupation of their
country. We in the US, who have the freedom to raise our voices, write an
editorial or march in protest any time we want, owe it to the oppressed to
raise our voices in support of those who the Chinese would try to silence.



The Chinese want to use the Olympics to show off what a modern, economically
successful country they have become. Never mind that their economic success
comes largely because it's cheap to manufacture everything when you don't
have to clean up the toxic pollution the factory spits out, and you can get
your raw materials from huge strip mines and clear cuts in previously
pristine Tibetan wildernesses.



To me, helping the police keep US protesters outside of camera range during
the Olympic torch relay, is simply fighting for the wrong side. If you want
to showcase skating when the torch passes through, call the press and skate
your own torch relay with big banners that say "Carrying a Torch for Tibet"
and "Boycott Made in China."



Kathy McSparran

Director, Phoenix Inline Skate School

Zephyr Adventures Guide





-----Original Message-----
From: inline-instruction@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:inline-instruction@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
sk8godfather@...
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 11:51 AM
To: sfskaters@...
Subject: [inline-instruction] Skating Cops Protecting Olympic Torch Runners



Hi Skaters,

One week before we start the SF to Santa Monica Skate Against Violence.

Check out the video of the skating cops in Paris as they try to protect the
Olympic Torch runners. We might do the same here in San Francisco. I am
meeting today about the possibility.

http://www.sfgate. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object...433D42.DTL&o=0>
com/cgi-bin/object...433D42.DTL&o=0

D. Miles Jr.
The GodFather of Skating
http://www.cora. <http://www.cora.org> org

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