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The 2008 Summer Olympic Games get under way Friday with the lighting of the Olympic flame in Beijing, launching 16 days of competition by the best athletes in the world.

Let's hope the real meaning and spirit of the competition aren't sidetracked by other considerations, mainly how the games will play out in China. The Chinese government has pledged openness and cooperation, but the devil will be in the definitions as the games proceed. As of Monday, news reports outlined concerns that still linger:

* The air quality over Beijing is not good and raises legitimate concerns that endurance events such as long-distance races may have to be moved out of the city. There is still hope that emergency measures would clear the city's air by Friday. The Chinese government has known since July 2001 that it would host the games and it's still trying to scrub the air on the eve of the opening ceremonies?

* Near Tiananmen Square in the heart of the city, police have scuffled with protesters who said they were evicted from their homes to make way for games-related development. Though the Chinese government has set aside special protest zones (involvement in Darfur, Tibet and denial of human rights in general are potential causes), the overtones of political protest loom large over the games.

* Chinese censors continued to block access to politically sensitive Web sites for thousands of foreign journalists gathered at the Olympic press center. Assurances of openness during the games ring hollow coming from a government that has never embraced freedom of the press or open access to information. We'll see how it plays out after the games begin.

This Olympic competition will likely be the most watched in history. That's another reason to feel relief when the games start, with the hope they go smoothly and without incident. NBC is the host U.S. network and in conjunction with Microsoft and other technology companies will also offer unprecedented online access

All that said, let's skip political and environmental overtones created by the Chinese government and special interests and get to the real reason for these Summer Olympic Games: From archery to wrestling, thousands of the world's most talented athletes will compete in 34 event categories for the coveted gold, silver and bronze medals.

But the Olympics are also about much more than individual competition in the sense that each athlete represents his or her country and all have proven themselves winners just to qualify for the competition in Beijing.

National pride will be on display, and for several days, a world divided by political and religious differences, comes together in the spirit of competition -- where the best man, woman or team on a given day takes home the medal.

So let's get to the business at hand. Enough of the buildup. Let the games begin.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.

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Events and people define turning points in history and no recording of critical world events in the post-World War II era would be complete without Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn's name high on a list of individuals who made a difference.

Those who remember the former Soviet Union under the iron-fisted rule of Josef Stalin can appreciate what a critical turning point in history the world faced at the time. Freedom and tyranny were literally divided most graphically by the Berlin Wall. It was a time of communism squared off against the rest of the noncommunist world in general, and the United States as the leader of the free world in particular.

For those not old enough to remember those events, there are the history books. And there are the writings of Nobel prize-winner Solzhenitsyn that give a chilling, close-up look of life behind the Iron Curtain.

Beginning with the 1962 short novel, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Solzhenitsyn portrayed a Soviet Union in which he and other Soviet citizens could be arrested, sometimes for seemingly absurd reasons, and sentenced to slave labor camps.

His "Gulag Archipelago" trilogy of the 1970s shocked the world with graphic descriptions of the savagery of the Soviet state under Stalin.

Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Soviet gulag, giving his writings and commentaries the sharp edge of personal insight into the subversion of individual rights and dignity.

Solzhenitsyn lived in exile in Cavendish, Vt., for 18 years before returning to his homeland in 1994. Then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had restored Solzhenitsyn's citizenship in 1990.

While the West offered him sanctuary during his exile, don't think for a minute that he was pro-West out of appreciation. He freely criticized Western culture for what he considered its weakness and decadence.

And he didn't buy the simplistic view that America's form of democracy will easily overlay elsewhere in the world. Russia's civilization, he said, is different, cannot be reconciled to either communism or democracy as we know it, and requires a system adapted to Russian history and traditions.

Solzhenitsyn's tenacity and insights undoubtedly influenced the eventual disbanding of the Soviet Union, though he had an on-again, off-again relationship with Russian leaders since his return from exile.

As for his place in history? He tweaked the conscience of an unsuspecting world, much like Harriet Beecher Stowe's period novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," gave new insights into slavery in the U.S.

Solzhenitsyn called it like he saw it, even though he couldn't even let his friends read what he'd written early-on because he feared for their safety. Solzhenitsyn's influence went beyond one or two books.

Even if you haven't read him, you feel you know him.

And that's some legacy to leave behind.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.