U.S. Athletes Warned Against "Jingoistic" Flag-waving!

Which appeasement junkie thought this up?

Published on May 17, 2004 By greywar In Current Events

The Washingon Times reports that U.S. athletes have been waned against waving the U.S. flag at the olympics. The thought process here is that since the U.S. is not very popular right now we should avoid making any "jingoistic" statements or show any national pride.

My question is this... Where does it stop? Should we simply rol over and play dead? Perhaps let the french have a few of our cities as an apology for attacking their lovely friend Saddam? Or maybe we should restart the oil-for-kickbacks program so the "international community" can heal the "deep diplomatic wounds" we have incurred with the resumption of easy bribe money?

I hope the team captains have the courage to stand up and wave Old Glory high and wide. Screw the appeasers. If the world can't stand a bit of national pride...too damn bad.

Emperor Darth Misha I also has excellent coverage of this in his own indomitable style here.

I am dying to hear the views of the more left leaning of the JU community. Seriously. I wont flame you or anything. (well I suppose that is dependant on your behaviour as well)

Comments (Page 1)

JeremyG

on May 17, 2004

The olympics have always been a sort of stage for the current world politics.

While I don't think people should NOT wave the flag.....it seems to me that in the current state of things, it couldnt hurt to excersize so caution, so as not to provoke increased negative feeling toward the US....don't you?

Action_Jay

on May 17, 2004

Good point. The US put themselves in a touchy situation right now with the rest of the world. Every other country will be thinking 'pompous bastards' long before Unmericans do anything to prod at it. But just watch, I guarantee they'll still pull off another 'bring em on' tactic of mass hystaria.

kingbee

on May 17, 2004

at risk of revealing longevity has nothing to do with wisdom, i can recall the furor caused by american athletes raising their clenched fists during the awards ceremony at the games of ummmm not that long ago actually.

i'm certainly not answering for the left or any other neighborhood.

i was going to conclude by noting between the two extremes it just goes to show you cant win but that seemed like an innapropriate tagline for a comment on athletic competition so i wont.

Draginol

on May 17, 2004

My response would be: Tough. The US athletes should wave the flag as much as any other country.

Mr_Frog

on May 17, 2004

My response to the PC group: "Tough shit." The Olympics are a place for a country to be proud of their athletes and country. I think they should wave the flag just as any other country would.

Estrogen Lass

on May 17, 2004

You knew that I couldnt resist posting on this subject. Patriotism is one of those things that is very dear to my heart (right next to my husband and son actually). My answer to this: To lay over and just play dead would be succumbing to what everybody in the world wants us to do. And to that, I say, nope. Not a chance in hell. I still believe that we are the greatest nation and always will be, no matter what circumstances. I think the rest of the world will just have to get over us waving our flags around and it will be in whatever matter we damn well please.

greywar

on May 17, 2004

Thanks for the comments folks....

While I certainly wouldn't advocate that the US Olympic team show up wearing the "Six Days Bitch!" Israeli pride shirts written in Arabic (found here), I don't think that we should restrict ourselves from the mundane and common act of waving the flag at the Olympics.

Madine

on May 17, 2004

Suggesting we shouldn't wave our flag at the Olympics is ludicrous.

messybuu

on May 17, 2004

I hope they do it anyway. It might seem arrogant that the US athletes do what every other athlete does, but to Hell with their double standards.

Mr_Frog

on May 17, 2004

Forgive my ignorance, but is the "Six Days, bitch" referring to the Six Days that God took to create the Earth, or something else?

-- B

messybuu

on May 17, 2004

The Six Day War in which Israel beat down a few Arabic nations.

Saint Ying

on May 17, 2004

A better idea would be to refrain from excessive flag waving and come out of the Olympics with a resounding #1 in the gold metal column. I suspect that most athletes are familiar with the rules of good sportsmanship and will not behave antagonistically, but perhaps they need to be reminded that the Olympics are an excellent opportunity for Americans to show some good old fashioned humility and modesty. Americans should run with their flag, but they shouldn't flaunt it with gestures to the crowd. If this event were held in America such conduct would be fine, but its happening in Athens, on the fringes of the European and Islamic worlds. Everyone knows we're #1. We've been the world's only superpower for quite some time, and our athletes always do well at the summer Olympics. Excessive patriotic ferver could strike international spectators as 'rubbing it in', which is robustly anti-social. Let's take the high road this time and avoid controversy for the sake of avoiding controversy. It will be better in the long run, and if it doesn't help redeem our image in the wake of Abu Ghraib, it will at least stop the bleeding.

Abe cubbage

on May 17, 2004

Flag waving is stupid.

Telling athletes not to wave the flag at the olympics is even more stupid.

Mr_Frog

on May 17, 2004

I'm not a very patriotic person, but there are a lot of patriotic people in the world (not just Americans). To say that one group of people cannot show their patriotism by waving their countries flag is absurd. If non-Americans are so sensitive that some flag-waving is going to set them off, I think they have some issues to work out. If Iraq or Afghanistan were participating in the summer games, they should be able to feel as patriotic as us, or any other country participating in the games.

-- B

Gerry Atrick

on May 17, 2004

Greywar, I heard a slightly different story on the radio. It said that US athletes have been warned against showing excess enthusiasm in their celebrations. I was at the Sydney olympics in 2000 and was in the stadium when the US 100 metres mens relay team won gold. Their display afterwards was well over the top. It really felt like they were rubbing everyone elses noses in it and the crowd reacted appropriately....i.e. cheers turned to boos. Australians tend to like Americans but they were very unpopular after that display....as I said I was there so this is not second hand. This behaviour in Sydney in 2000 when the world was relatively peaceful is one thing....doing it in Greece in 2004 could have more serious consequences.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!