Summer Games, Make Me Feel . . . let me get back to you on that.

Aug 14, 2008 at 7:20 AM
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I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but I've been thinking about the Olympics and America's place in the world over the past week, and I've been feeling . . . well, a bit underwhelmed. My pride in America's athletic achievements is tempered by what we've allowed our nation to become under the current administration. When President Bush spoke out against Russia's invasion of Georgia, I gotta say it kinda reminded me of those old anti-drug PSAs. . .

(President Bush walks in on Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev invading the former Soviet Republic of Georgia)

Bush II: "I can't believe you're doing this! Invading a sovereign nation based on a weak argument that you pumped up based on faulty evidence . . . Who taught you how to do this stuff?"

Putin & Medvedev: "YOU, George, OK? We learned it from watching you!"

And at this point, I've got to tell you how excited I am that Dmitri Medvedev is the Russian President because sometimes when I drink while I'm watching the news, I can almost hear President Bush unknowingly quoting President Merkin Muffley while engaged in his special brand of diplomatacy . . . "Well, it's good that you're fine and I'm fine! I agree with you, it's great to be fine! Now, then Dmitri . . . "

But I digress. . .

Some of the events that are part of the Summer Games aren't really summer games at all. Don't get me wrong, I love to watch table tennis when it's played at the supersonic speeds we generally see in Olympic level competition, but when I was a kid, playing ping-pong during the summer was a sure way to get mom to suggest that we go outside and get some fresh air. Then you've got the trampoline event. Again, fun to watch, but it's an indoor event. As a summer event, trampoline competition should really be held outside. Where athletes risk getting hit by passing birds. Really close to the skeet shooting competition. And speaking of the shooting events, I would have expected America to do much better than we did. I mean, it's not like we're teaching it in school, but still. . .

No, I think that the summer games should include more true summer games. Games like kickball, tag or hide and seek. At least in that last one, America would still be a strong contender for the Silver . . . maybe even the Bronze.

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[this is good]

From a different perspective, i.e. that of someone living in Vietnam...

People here really believe that the little Chinese girl could fly, and sing at the same time too. Here the 'religion' is Animism, where all kinds of strange things are possible. This is by no means a negative comment, just an observation of what is.

Reading about all these other sports is a real surprise. In order to watch anything but football (American "Soccer"), badminton, and various forms of volleyball, one needed the manual dexterity of a veteran game player to flip between channels searching for anything but those sports just mentioned. I never saw swimming, saw just a few replays of men's 100 meter dash, and watched the entire 6 minutes of men's performances on the high bar.

Vietnamese TV seems to only broadcast the sports that have some popularity here in Vietnam, and those 3 sports I mentioned were spread randomly on 5 different channels, necessitating the manual dexterity I refer to above. Fifteen days of this were just too much, and I finally quit watching 5 days ago. In fairness to Viet TV, they did broadcast the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and those were something to behold, altho in my opinion the Opening was better than the closing. Seems it should have been the other way around.

Tom Friedman, in today's NY Times, expressed dismay and at the same time, hope, that the USA and China had a lot to learn from one another. It seems to me that he ignores the fact that China is really an amalgam of more cultures than the USA, and that the thing we both need to learn from each other is that when it comes right down to it, we are all the same--just human beings trying to exist as best we can on an all-too-quickly shrinking planet.

When more people in the world learn that we should celebrate our differences and embrace our similarities, this will be a more comfortable planet to inhabit. To me the best thing about China and Vietnam is the universal lack of guns in the hands of the general population. This is REALLY something that America should and could learn

There is still time brother...