As Vancouver's 2010 Games draw near, it's interesting to note we're slowly hearing less from those whom I dub the Olympic whiners.
Vancouver's media are reducing coverage of those who tell us the Games are a bad thing, and turning their attention to the big event.
But before the Olympic whiners are filed under the "where are they now" category, I'd like to recognize these folks with medals.
In the race for Olympic whining medal status, the Anti-Poverty Committee is pulling up the rear of the pack.
Whatever happened to these black-hoodied malcontents and their bullhorns?
Did Rich Coleman's purchase and renovation of a dozen Vancouver SRO hotels steal their thunder, or are the media just bored with them?
Last week, only a few news outlets reported that an anti-Olympic group had vandalized a couple of government MLA offices.
The repairs will cost taxpayers thousands, and the damage proves nothing more than the protester's capacity for wanton destruction.
Thankfully, most media ignored the story knowing that what these grumps really crave is headlines, not social justice.
So no medal for the anarchists, they'd probably just trash them anyway.
Next up are community activists who are whining about Vectorial Elevation, the artful light show to be staged each evening at English Bay during the Games.
Brent Granby of the West End Residents Association howled about not being consulted on the matter, and fretted that the lights would shine up the nighties of people living on Beach Avenue.
For this impressive demonstration of small town thinking the West End whiners are awarded a bronze medal.
For over a year, the B.C. Teacher's Federation plugged Teach2010, a creation of the Olympic Resistance Network, through member communiques. Then a few weeks ago they circulated a flyer with Dora the Explorer dressed up in a Nazi concentration camp uniform to promote a "resistance" course for elementary school teachers.
The school board happily rented a classroom to the organizers, and then the board chair proceeded to publicly defend the decision when it hit the front pages.
For their unconscionable dissing of Miga, Quatchi and Dora, the BCTF get an Olympic whining silver medal.
The top spot on the podium now gets mighty crowded. Wendy Pederson of the Carnegie Community Action Project, Laura Track of Pivot Legal Society, and David Eby of the BC Civil Liberties Association have practically made an industry of anti-Games initiatives.
Their fear-mongering on the Olympic sign bylaw, and a provincial act to take vulnerable street people to shelter during extreme weather would lead you to think that John Furlong is bringing his mighty jackboot down on helpless citizens.
For their absurd suggestion that club-swinging storm troopers will be kicking down your doors because of your Olympics Sucks sign on the balcony, or that street people will be deliberately hidden away during the Games by authorities, we have a three-way tie for Olympic gold medal whiner.
Before we know it, the 2010 Games will have come and gone. What could any of these folks possibly have to whine about then?
So no medal for the anarchists, they'd probably just trash them anyway.
