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> As I said in my original post on the subject, since it didn't happen
> that way (i.e. we DID go...although it wasn't ME, Kemosabi :), so "we"
> is a bit of a misnomer), nobody will ever know what may have been
> learned or accomplished by not going.
>
> However, as I also said in my original post on the subject, it is
> difficult to imagine how it could have turned out WORSE (although, more
> on that below).
Kat, while your points are well-taken, nobody would have expected to have
entirely thwarted WWII by going or not going to the Olympics.  What
happened by our going was that Hitler's "master race" was greatly
embarrassed.  Whether that display gave good people who observed it the
guts to hang on just a bit longer when the chips were down is
speculation--but I suspect in some cases it did.  It certainly displayed
to those watching that the "master race" was not as superior as it thought
it was.

While that effect was a very small part in a much bigger problem, it is
nonetheless a positive one.

Had we not gone, we would simply have had the "master race" consider us to
be fools and chickens.  They weren't far wrong--had we gotten into the war
in 1939, we most likely would have saved millions of lives, but we put our
collective heads in the sand and tried to convince ourselves that it
didn't concern us.  (Well, not all of us did--a fair number volunteered
for the British armed forces because they could see that stopping Hitler
was something that had to be done.)

Personally, I suspect it took Jesse Owens a lot more guts to go and to
compete in that atmosphere than it would have to have stayed home.  And
there is plenty of evidence out there to suggest that his performance did
indeed mar the presentation that Hitler tried to show the world--and that
Hitler was all too aware of it.  Even small gestures like Jesse's
performance do add up psychologically over time, if there are enough of
them.

And for what it was worth, kat, I wasn't around in 1936, either--"we"
refers to our country, the USA, of which I believe you are as much a part
as I am...

Heidi



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