The fire is lit. The games must continue. Today the German national Olympic Committee announced that they will participate no matter what. My guess is that the Chinese would have to carpet bomb Tibet for anyone to boycott the games now. Too much is riding on having good economic relations with China, and officials cannot afford themselves even minor criticism.

Which means that it is now up to us as consumers to decide for ourselves whether we want to see these Olympics or not. I urge everyone who is in favor of a boycott not to tune in the summer, not to participate in the discussion of winners, losers and gold medals. Our governments may not be in a strong enough position to say no, but we certainly are.