And remember the sacred purpose for which it was created... a Leni Riefenstahl propaganda film promoting the Nazi-sponsored games in 1936.
But the idea of lighting the torch at the ancient Olympian site in Greece and then running it through different countries has much darker origins.
It was invented in its modern form by the organizers of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
And it was planned with immense care by the Nazi leadership to project the image of the Third Reich as a modern, economically dynamic state with growing international influence.
The torch relay in 1936, and in 2008, is symbolism. Protesting this torch relay is also symbolism.
No one should be advocating violence of any sort in connection to this event. But those folding their arms and ignoring China's atrocities in Tibet (and elsewhere) with the pretense that the Olympics should be above the yin and yang of politics need to drop the sense of high moral outrage.