Why San Francisco? First-Hand Account of the Olympic Torch Protests

I’m not quite sure why it is that the Olympic Committee chose San Francisco, arguably the most liberal city in the United States, to run the 2008 Olympic Torch through. Americans everywhere have feelings on China; with the lead in toys scandal and pet food poisoning, and the crisis in Tibet, but in San Francisco, there’s no shortage of activists who take their causes to the streets. And the air, as we saw on Monday.

My sister lives in San Francisco, though she’s not an activist, she spent the early part of the day today mingling with other onlookers who found their normal route had been overtaken by protests and Tibetan flags.

“I didn’t know what was happening right away” She told me. “But it became obvious pretty fast.”

She says it wasn’t only protesters lining the embarcadero early on Wednesday, as some Chinese dancers and other people in support of the Olympics raised signs and cheered in blue and red.  There was a big separation between those who were celebrating and those who were making a stand against the games and the humanitarian disasters allowed by the Chinese government.

“I stood behind the protesters that walked down King Street for quite awhile, just listening and watching them. They were peaceful, screaming ‘China, Free Tibet!’ and holding up signs and flags. They eventually crossed the street, joining another group of people who were protesting near to the edge of the (At&T) Stadium.

The best part for me was, well, a family of a Mom, Dad and probably 10 year old daughter was standing there with me who had walked up King Street as well, and the Dad was explaining to the daughter why people were protesting. It was interesting, as he finished by saying, ‘In Tibet, people can’t protest like we can here. That’s what they want, the freedom to protest’.”

I can’t help but think that bringing the torch through San Francisco today was a marketing strategy aimed at producing more interest in the games. It just seems too…well, just too obvious.

More protesting equals more media coverage, more media coverage equals more people who are tuning in this summer when the games kick off.

Anyone else seeing this possibility? To those of you protesting – be careful. Speak your mind (and ours!), but be sure that your ideals aren’t being used as leverage against you.