Happy birthday, America.
Since it’s also my birthday, I feel that I am entitled to
make a political statement. If you disagree, grant me a gift and keep your
commentary to yourself. This is my day, and it’s my stage.
I have always been fiercely patriotic, and not just because
I was born on the Fourth of July. I grew up surrounded in Revolutionary history
here in Boston and all around New England. I am from a family with ties to
WWII, WWI, the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, the Salem Witch Trials, and Plimoth.
While I despise politics and all things and people
political, I am, for the most part, proud of my country. For all of its flaws,
it is still the country on Earth where Freedom rings.
Now, my bone of contention.
I have had the honor of knowing (and working out with) Olympic athletes. I have seen and touched Olympic medals. I personally know someone currently representing the USA who is going to Tokyo. I would like to believe, and have never been given reason to think otherwise, that these people whom I know are proud to represent USA on the international stage. I have seen them cheer, cry, and stare starry-eyed during their medal ceremonies, even if their national anthem is not the one being played for the podium.
Any American Olympic athlete who is embarrassed by, offended
by, or disrespectful to our national anthem or flag during an Olympic-level athletic medal
ceremony should be disallowed from being awarded a medal. If this happens during qualifying or preliminary
competition to represent USA on the international stage, then say goodbye to
your country as your sponsor.
PERIOD.
Competing on the international stage is your job. Save your politics for your media interview when the biased
and useless press wants your minuscule and irrelevant opinion. Save your speech
of how you hate America for the slaves working in a Filipino sweatshop making
sneakers so you can get your millions in advertising and sponsorship fees. Save
your anti-America sentiment for your Communist friends who wouldn’t know the
Constitution as anything more than their personal toilet paper.
When you represent your country on the international stage, be it athletic or otherwise, try to act with the remotest modicum of decency for a nation that has granted you the freedom to become what you are. If that’s so damn offensive to you, sit the fuck down and let someone who cares about this country take your selfish, petty place.
Sure, sure; it’s your “Constitutional” right to be an
asshole. But it’s also our right as Americans to make sure you know you’re an
asshole. That’s how Freedom works.
