IN THEORY:

Rep. Frank R. Wolf of Virginia recently criticized President Bush’s plans to attend the Olympic Games this summer in Beijing. The Republican congressman argued that it would be like President Franklin D. Roosevelt attending Adolf Hitler’s Berlin Olympics in 1936. Wolf, who co-chairs a congressional caucus on Sudan, wants China to do more to push the Sudanese to halt the mass killings in Darfur. Director Steven Spielberg recently withdrew as artistic director of the Beijing Games because of China’s position on Darfur. Do you think, like Spielberg, that Bush should boycott the Beijing Olympics?

The United States should do more to protect human rights within our own borders as well as around the world, if we are not to be accused of living in glass houses and throwing stones. Whether this lame-duck president attends the Olympic Games is not as important an issue as our dire need to elect a new leader who will restore America’s reputation in the world as a defender of human rights. It takes a foreign policy based on bipartisan concerns and an ability to form global coalitions — rather than war — to earn the right to influence other nations and their leaders.

I commend people like Steven Spielberg, Angelina Jolie and supporters of Save Darfur who are bringing attention to the genocide in Darfur.

While China wants to use the Olympics to spotlight the nation’s progress, its leaders should be pressured to respect human rights within their own country as well as in Darfur.

We should also be asking questions about the living and working conditions of the people who are making all of this “made in China” stuff we are buying.

The Rev. Deborah Barrett

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

I think China’s position is part of a much larger question: How will humanity stop the corporate take-over of the world’s basic resources — water, energy and food? If China’s need for oil is cause to their blindness in Darfur, I pray that Spielberg, Wolf and President Bush see the bigger picture. It’s too easy to put on the blinders and run down the narrow corridors of self-interest. I much prefer the examples of people like Bono, and Greg Mortenson (co-author of “Three Cups of Tea”) who use their resources to serve humanity and follow their lead. The human rights learning curve is abrupt because it confronts our instinctual need to protect our own self-interests versus the spiritually moral mandate to share and serve. But I have faith that spirit will rise and inform us all that we must learn to serve and help each other.

Pastor Jim Turrell

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa

The Olympic Games have always been a mixture of superior athletic achievement, political power and a showcase for peace and harmony among nations. Jacques Rogge, president of the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee, has said that staging the Aug. 8-14 games in Beijing will serve as a “force for good.”

President Bush accepted China’s invitation to attend these Olympics last September, stressing that he is attending the games “for the sports and not for any political statement.”

This would be possible were he only a lifelong fan and former owner of the Texas Rangers. Because he is much more than that as president of our United States, his participation will help determine what the greatest legacy of the Beijing games will be. I suspect that will be its human and cultural consequences.

If he is acutely aware of the significant statements his presence makes, for example, that China must improve its morality with education in Olympic history and values, President Bush’s involvements in Beijing next August can be a “force for good.”

The Very Rev’d Canon Peter D. Haynes

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Parish Church