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Re: [RC] Boycotting Sporting Events (was: UAE Culture) - Truman Prevatt



heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
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.
Hilter still killed 6 million  Jews and other minorities not considered the "master race." So what did we accomplish?

Had we not gone and had not this country had so many apologist for the Nazi regime, had we not as a nation buried out heads in the sand saying it was "Europe's problem" and ignored the evidence of the concentration camps.  Had we faced the probelm head on early on in 1936 - maybe just maybe we could have saved some suffering. We don't know. But we should have faced it right up front.

Noone has ever doubted the character and courage of Jesse Owens. He carried the weight of a nation on his shoulders. He carried the weight of a nation that did not reconogize the rights of his people - the Afro-Americans - to equal jobs, equal education or even a seat in the front of the bus. He was a true American hero. The United States should hang its head in shame that Jesse Owens carried the weight of the American people - and civilized people everywhere - on his shoulders and when he got back home his kids had to go to second class segerated schools.

But we have addressed that issue. Our political process has worked. Rosa Parks who dared to not give up her seat to a white man on the bus that day - set off a revolution that changed this country for the better forever. We are much closer to Martin Luther King's dream today than we ever have been - although there is still some work to do. We've ridded ourselves of slavery - we've ridded ourselves of oppression. But somehow we still have apologist for those who commit such crimes against humidity.

Truman
--
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch

 

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
--Benjamin Franklin

 


Replies
[RC] Boycotting Sporting Events (was: UAE Culture), k s swigart
Re: [RC] Boycotting Sporting Events (was: UAE Culture), heidi