KEY POINTS:
The most sacred of our rights is that of free speech so Mark Todd, the great Olympian and horseman, sat tall in the saddle this week by announcing he would use the Beijing Games this year to peacefully protest against China's "abhorrent" actions in Tibet.
Thank goodness for Todd _ trying to win Olympic selection and then a third gold medal _ whose stance is contrary to the Olympic movement's attempts to squash political protests by athletes.
His words should be tinder-dry logs that stoke the fires in all of us. Foremost among the concerns is a Chinese ban on foreign journalists covering the "unrest" in Tibet.
China is a notorious abuser of human rights and the Tibet issue is not the only one that athletes might voice concerns over.
Todd was a youth of the 1960s and 70s, when protest was a rite of passage. Whether the target was a foreign power or our own men (they were usually men back then) in power, it was mandatory to vent a youthful spleen at least once in the nation's streets, partly as a sign of maturing thought. This at least served to give society's conscience a poke now and then.
The closest the youth of today will come to pushing any Chinese buttons is on their mobile phones so it is left to a veteran Olympian to lead the way in reminding us of our rights and obligations.
And while we may not be able to fix everything or anything in Tibet, nor even understand it fully, we can _ at the very least _ look after what should be held sacred in our own patch and hope that it has some small influence for change.
Nothing in sport should over-ride the right to free speech. Nothing.
Why on earth should we acquiesce for the sake of a Chinese Government which has little or no respect for many values that we hold dear.
There are causes far greater than the pursuit of sporting gold or bank vault silver and the day we leave those issues to men in suits and tall buildings is the day we take a shabby lift to the basement of decent behaviour.
"I am totally against violence of any sort," Todd said with a simple sincerity that should make our Olympic leaders cringe at their attempts at suppression.
An ostentatious Olympic movement is apparently happy to glory in the athletes' oath which commits to the spirit of sportsmanship, even if it is delivered while the spirit of life is being bludgeoned in nearby streets.
This is not to ignore the delicacy and trickiness of the situation. It's about what is right and just and good.
Todd hardly launched a hand grenade of reason through a dictatorship's front door yet he is swimming against all that the New Zealand and other international Olympic politicians want and even demand from the athletes.
The NZOC may have quit on its plan to have athletes put their name to contracts banning them from speaking out while in China.
Yet that it even considered the move shows what lies in a cold heart, and these sports honchos are still discouraging political comment during the Games.
The 52-year-old Todd believes that Olympic attendance, rather than boycott, is the way to go, and that if selected he would be ready to mount a peaceful protest against China's "abhorrent" actions against the Tibetan people.
This, of course, goes against the directive of our Olympic Committee, a mob so morally challenged that they sent a baby killer to represent this country at the Commonwealth Games two years ago. The only time these officials jump up and down is to embarrass the nation by turning an overseas sporting event into a haka-festival.
Todd is uneasy about these Olympics with good cause and at about the time he was speaking his words of reason, China was publicly humiliating prisoners in the streets of Lhasa.
What the international and New Zealand IOCs don't seem to understand is that when faced with a humanitarian outrage, the distressingly loudest voice of all is the one that says nothing.
Do they really expect the athletes to turn up in Beijing under these circumstances and not even say boo? Do they really think such a cross section of people could all allow events in Tibet and China's human rights record to go unchallenged?
The champion Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband has urged the head of the IOC to appeal for improved human rights in China, thus allowing athletes to refer to the IOC position when questioned.
It's a promising partial-solution but even then, it shouldn't muzzle those individuals who still want to speak. The Olympic reputation is in fact being saved by those like Todd who are prepared to think and speak outside the dictates of this five-ringed, money-soaked corporate circus.
And have no fear, IOC bosses, because the Chinese authorities will take every opportunity to turn your passive position into statements for their cause. They already have on their highly controlled news websites, with manipulated stories that twist scraps of information into outrageous reports. It's important of course that we don't just turn this into China bashing, and conveniently ignore the actions of western powers at future sporting carnivals.
As for a Chinese Olympic boycott though, it is probably a step too far although not entirely out of the question depending on how China acts, and what we can find about how they act, in regards to Tibet. The option should not be entirely dismissed given some of China's history of violent oppression of dissent.
Todd has shown the best way to go for now and the 1981 Springbok tour is a shining example of what the combination of contact and protest can achieve in the fight for change.
Protest isn't mandatory of course, and Barbara Kendall has already said she is against Todd's position.
"We are not there to be politically minded," she said quite fairly, if only she had turned the we into I.
The right to be politically vocal is all of ours, whether it be at the lavish Olympic banquet or at the most simple breakfast table.
Todd is the New Zealand sporting hero of the hour, a man prepared to place hurdles far greater and important than wooden rails and water jumps in his own path.
An elder statesman of the arena has looked beyond the fences and the turnstiles, and freed our rights from the clammy clutches of those who are shaped by life in the boardroom.
Todd has spoken with wisdom and humanity, breaking free of sport's own version of oppression. Whether he wins gold or not, he has already stood on the most important podium this week.
