Dear Morrie
I was shocked and appalled at the arrogant way Sydney's Olympic heavyweight, Kevan Gosper, ruined what was meant to be a happy start to the Olympic Flame’s journey from Greece to Australia.
It’s beyond belief that a man of his calibre couldn’t see the damage he would do by allowing his daughter to be the first Aussie in line to carry the flame after it was lit in Olympia.
What could he have been thinking?
To make matters worse, that other poor little girl from a Greek-Australian family flew all the way over there with her classmates from school, thinking she was going to do the job, only to be bumped down the line by the daughter of one of our own greedy and insensitive IOC and SOCOG officials.
It just made my blood boil. As if the ticketing fiasco and gift scandals weren’t bad enough.
While I know many Australians share my anger, I also know that many feel Mr Gosper’s daughter shouldn’t be pilloried for the sins of her father. She is just too young to understand the reckless way he has acted.
My concern is that when it comes time for the flame to land in Australia, too many Australians will take out their anger on Sophie Gosper – and not her father.
I’m especially concerned about how this whole incident will affect young Australians who may start to feel you can’t get anywhere in this life unless your parents are well connected.
Surely we need to make sure our kids know who did the wrong thing in this case, so they don’t go blaming young Sophie.
What can be done to make sure this happens?
I hope you can help Morrie.

Olympic Fan
Perth

Dear Olympic Fan,
I agree with you 125 percent. Gazumping that young Greek girlie was Gosper’s biggest blue so far – and we all know that’s saying something.
As one who has fallen foul of the heavy-handed approach the SOCOG people take to those who criticise or challenge them, I can vouch for the fact that arrogance is their first and middle names as well as their surnames.
They take no prisoners, believe me.
Only last year I received a threatening letter from SOCOG’s shiny-arsed lawyers directing me to shut down a legitimate business I’d set up with the aim of getting more Australians interested in sports – something I’d have thought the Olympics was all about.
I’d come up with a plan to organise local sporting events right across the country, with a small fee for those wanting to take part or watch.
The idea came to me as I was in the Caprice cruising past the local footy field. There were lots of young kiddies out on the field kicking the ball and running hell, west and crooked. Their mums and dads were cheering on the sidelines.
Morrie, I said to myself, sport is in the blood of every Australian – young and old. Why not organise as many sports events as possible so that Aussie kids everywhere – and their parents – can feel the thrill of competition?
Why not indeed, I said to myself.
Like so many times in my life, my dream was born in an instant only to be shattered months later by unimaginative and vindictive buggers bent on wrapping everything and everyone up in red tape, rules and regulations.
You see, I wanted to organise something new and exciting. Something different.
The idea of sports teams being based on suburbs or geographical districts seemed old hat to me. So I struck upon the idea of organising events based on postcodes.
Naturally, the pilot comp I set up was in central Sydney – pencilled in for around September this year.
My plan was to hit the Sydney CBD area first, get a bit of publicity for the idea and take it across the nation – all they way from 2001 to 8999, which I guess would be somewhere in the Northern Territory.
But no, it wasn’t to be.
SOCOG came down on me like a ton of bricks. No, they said, you can’t register the name “Sydney 2000 Games”. No, you can’t organise an event called that and sell mail-order entry fees for participants and tickets for spectators.
Typical bloody SOCOG.
I pleaded my case that selling tickets to my “Sydney 2000 Games” would not cut across anything SOCOG was planning to do, and besides there was no way people would be confused about my modest little shindig and what was happening way out at 2140.
To cut a long story short, SOCOG won the day – another gold medal performance in arrogance and legal brutality.
So, you don’t have to tell me about people like Kevan Gosper. I know his type only too well.
But, leaving aside my little run-in with the Olympic powers that be, I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments about Gosper junior.
If we want our kids to really share the Olympic spirit, the last thing we want is them poking fun at young Sophie.
That’s why I’ve established a special educational fund to promote the idea of true sportsmanship to Aussie kids in the lead-up to the Olympics.
I want to take the Gosper experience and make sure kiddies learn from it, make sure they don’t continue to blame his daughter and sour what should be our nation’s greatest ever sporting event.
If you want to help, send me a cheque made out to Citizens Against Sophie’s Harassment.
Bugger it, to save your time and mine, just make it out to CASH.
I’ll be in touch.

Morrie

Morrie Bezzle is chairman of the Sidney O. Lympic Committee, founder of 2000: A Sports Odyssey (sole trader in receivership), executive director of Sam A. Ranch Holdings and general manager of Gold Medal Motors (in liquidation).

The publisher and staff of The Bug take no responsibility for the advice provided in this column.