What? What?
June 11th, 2007 . 9:03 pm . By: DJ WalkerLast week in Salt Lake City (which, last I heard was still part of the Union) there was a soccer match between Real Salt Lake (an American professional soccer team for those of you who don’t follow the sport) and the National Team of The People’s Republic of China (a team representing the most repressive dictatorial government on the face of the earth). The outrage wasn’t that the Chinese were here playing soccer. No, the outrage was this (quoting from the Deseret news article): “I was really, really shocked. I couldn’t believe this was happening in this country,” fan Colin Coker said. Coker said he and several others, including five Tibetan men, were escorted out of the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium by about 10 officials, including stadium personnel and Real Salt Lake representatives, because they had been waving Tibetan flags and had refused to put them away when the officials told them to do so. The controversy began shortly after halftime, when Chinese players complained about fans displaying Taiwanese and Tibetan flags and a sign that said “6-4,” written in Chinese. That sign referred to June 4, 1989, the date of the Chinese government’s attack on protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing The guys who were exercising free speech had to go, but the representatives of the brutal repressive Communist regime got to stay. The world has truly been turned upside down. And, yes, I am aware of the arguments about the stadium being private property (though if public funds were used in its construction, this may not be the case), and having a ticket to an event being a revocable license and all that garbage. That doesn’t make the actions of the organizers any less reprehensible. 3 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
The protestors have every right to free speech, but free speech doesnt mean that they get to say and act whatever way that you want to. Univ of Utah is a public university and I’m sure that there are many rights to students and people on the campus. But if RSL pays rent for the stadium and these people were acting outside of what the private contractor deemed appropriate, then they had every right to expel the protestors. Free Speech doesnt mean all speech.
RSL acted within its legal rights, but they ignore the moral code that accompanies life in a democracy. Genuflecting to a brutal regime that spits on human rights and denies basic freedoms only encourages further atrocities. I also bet it wasn’t the “players” who complained, but the communist henchmen who accompany the team in order to prevent anyone from escaping during their american tour.
It was a player and a henchmen from the party.