Staff writer

The Olympics, even during some of the darkest moments of the Cold War, offered an atmosphere of peaceful rivalry through sports that seems to be less significant with the end of the East-West confrontation.

But the peaceful coming-together of nations should still provide the global community with a message of peace, this time taking the opportunity to raise the issue of regional conflicts and the indiscriminate cruelty they inflict on innocent citizens. At today's opening ceremony of the Nagano Games, British land mine activist Christopher Moon will punctuate that point by being a final runner in the Olympic torch relay -- a run he must make on one false leg.