Reply #6: That second paragraph sums me up pretty well. [View All]

[noamnety]

I don't feel like the athletes are "representing America" - I feel like they are representing themselves and their own interests. A bunch of people feel emotionally bonded to the winning people from their country for no reason I can figure out, when they don't even know each other.

I never understood that about football - everyone just "happens" to be big fans of the teams that happen to be in their city ... the part of my brain that is supposed to get that just seems to be broken. "I like this guy because he lives 25 miles from me; I don't like this other guy as much because he lives 225 miles from me."

While I can appreciate that some athletes have determination and self-discipline, I don't think they are heroic, not unless they've done something else in their lives worthy of that title - taken a huge ethical stand or made a giant sacrifice for someone else, or risked their safety for the good of others. Some athletes are heroes - Muhammed Ali with his opposition to the Vietnam War, for example. And some are rapists and murderers and wife batterers. I don't see a connection between doing sports (even if you do them really well), and having strong ethics.

Wouldn't it be something if the world shut down instead to honor Doctors Without Borders, and if the opening ceremonies for that was a stadium full of people building housing for disaster victims? All the common good - we're all one world stuff that the ceremonies and events are supposed to symbolize, why don't we just go out and DO it, instead of celebrating symbols of it?