Olympic Boosterism/Euphoria Is Alive And Well in Nanaimo!

I submitted the following 'Letter to the Editor' to the Nanaimo Daily News, with a note explaining that I had been holding onto it for awhile since I knew that they were unlikely to run it because it exceeded their guideline of 300 words or less (even after 3 edits). I then noted that they had recently published an LTE of approx. 700 words, so I was hopeful that this demonstrated some flexibility in their rules and that my submission would be published.

Dear Editor,
It appears that local Liberal supporter and tourism operator, Scott Littlejohn, has fully bought into this paper's self-serving drivel (B.C. residents should embrace the Olympics, Feb. 12/09) and has now taken upon himself to 'spread the word' to the masses (B.C. should make the most of 2010 Olympics, Feb. 19/09), the gist of which seems to be - we hope to be making lots of money so the anticipated end justifies the means.
I, like the vast majority of British Columbians, will never ski the 'Super-G' at Whistler Creekside, fly off the Whistler Olympic Park ski jump, experience the thrill of the track at the Sliding Centre, rent out a room, sell a meal or guide a tour - no, all I will ever get to do is help pay for it all - for how long, who knows?! Unlike the athletes, many of whom are already professionals earning millions of dollars, with even the amateurs being provided the opportunity to earn lucrative contracts as a result of the Games - all at no cost to themselves!
Only a few weeks ago, five and a half years after winning the Games, did the organizers finally come clean with the projected costs of these Olympics, announcing that the security costs, which they had been carrying on the books at $175 million for all that time (in spite of overwhelming evidence that it would be significantly higher), are now most likely to be in the order of $900,000,000, more than a five-fold increase!!
It's a little like making the big decision to have a house built and being told by the eager contractor that the cost of the roof will be $12,000 (though not guaranteed), only to arrive at the paint, flooring and fixtures stage and then being told that it is now $62,000, leaving you to not only wonder where you're going to find that extra money but if you should have built in the first place - of course, its too late for that!
So, the Daily News now tells us that the Olympic games are almost here and we should just enjoy them. That's pretty hard to do when you feel like you've been played for a sucker using that time-honoured tradition of significantly understating costs in order to get a publicly-funded project approved (Vancouver Convention Centre, Fast Ferries, etc.). Once again, we've been "sold a bill of goods" by those paid to look after EVERYONE'S interests. Will we never learn, why do we continue to let our governments treat us this way?!
What kind of sense does it make to hold any event where the security costs alone are in the order of $900 million?! Just think of all the health care, education resources or homeless shelter that could buy. If we're going to be spending public money, how about doing it on something that will actually have a chance of benefiting the majority of us?!