Let me start out by saying I don’t care that Mr. Obama went to Copenhagen. What better ambassador for our country (and Chicago) than a state leader speaking on behalf of a city he knows intimately? I’m being sincere. I know it doesn’t happen often, but I am. Obama’s trip to Copenhagen doesn’t bother me in the least.
Personally, I thought it looked a little desperate, but I don’t think it was improper or something worth crying foul over. The conservatives who think so are the same loons we’ve been seeing on television for the last 4 months, waiting for the president to make ANY move so they can lift their heads to the sky and open their beaks to hiccup vicious and insane accusations over and over.
But now that the IOC has made their decision, can’t we just congratulate Brazil and Rio de Janeiro? Fine, Chicago would’ve been great–but an Olympics being hosted in South America means something much greater than the United States hosting a (distant-record) 9th time. Four of our hosted games, in fact, have taken place within the last 30 years–Lake Placid (’80), Los Angeles (’84), Atlanta (’96), and Salt Lake City (’02).
Whether we lean liberal or conservative at the time, one thing always remains constant in the US: our self-assured place at the center of the blue-and-green globe. But I’m not referring to Obama’s endorsement of Chicago, nor Chicago’s courtship of the IOC. It’s a great honor to host the Olympics, and every nation that wants to participate by hosting strengthens the spirit of the games. The arrogance–instead–came with our reactions, left and right, when we learned that Rio de Janeiro had become the chosen site.
Brazilians and their supporters were all over Twitter yesterday, popularizing the Trending Topic “Yes We Créu” and keeping it held to the top of the trends for the back-half of the day. The phrase was an obvious pun of President Obama’s overechoed “Yes we can” slogan, translating roughly to “Yes we nail it”.
Sure, they were mocking Obama. But this sentiment is just a momentary reaction to a charismatic President’s last-ditch effort to put Chicago on the Olympic map. There was an obvious risk that his attempt to convince the IOC would fail, and when it did, of course there was an opening for ridicule. But Brazil’s harmless puns will subside and be replaced by preparations, anticipation, and the honor of hosting the greatest athletes of the world.
Here in the states, however, we didn’t pay attention to the IOC’s decision to choose Rio. We paid attention to the IOC’s decision to not choose Chicago. Fringers on the right let out their evil, bellicose laughter, and as the case has been over the last year, the left leapt to respond in the worst way possible. They could have moved on, ignoring the idiots on the right and graciously congratulating our hemispherical neighbors. Instead, they once again fell into the simplistic rhetoric traps of the right, issuing grievances about the righties’ disrespect of the president and their unpatriotic attitudes for being pleased with the IOC’s decision to not choose Chicago.
Both sides at-large, once again, illustrate the kind of arrogant children we count in the majority of both parties. It wasn’t wrong for the President to go to Copenhagen, and it wouldn’t have been wrong for the left to give the right the silent treatment in regard to their “nah-nah” mocking. I would have rather–for instance–heard Rachel Maddow talk about the significance of South America holding their first Olympic Games, but I’d be lying to myself if I thought her job was about anything other than finding the most outrageous statements of the right, preaching the evil and ignorance of those statements, and then attributing them to ANYONE that could be labeled conservative or right-wing. Like O’Reilly, Beck, Schultz, and Olbermann, Rachel convinces herself she’s illuminating the nation with the light of truth as she showers her already-convinced audience with witty reponses to bite-sized comments made by ignorant conservatives.
I’m sorry, but those of us STILL “shocked” that the fringes of the party out of power are bound to engage in shadenfreude have clearly been living in caves for a few decades.
Having said that, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough wrote an excellent column in the Huff. Post sincerely thanking Mr. Obama for taking the time to personally endorse our nation to the IOC and remarking on the horrid state of political discourse that both extremes have contributed to as of late. We need more Joe Scarboroughs in the world–on both sides of the political fence–to remind us that civility in debate is of paramount importance if we plan to find any solution to ANY ISSUE in this country.
Sure, plenty of us are going to be disappointed that Chicago won’t be the world’s center of attention in 2016. However, once we learned we lost, instead of mocking our president (or taking the time to respond to the fools mocking our president,) let’s move on and place the spotlight on what the world has won:
Brazil, the 5th most populous nation in the world, represents its continent in hosting the first Olympic Games in South America. Brazil, which has long been home to some of the world’s greatest athletes, has made great gains for its people in the last half-century, gains significant both to South America and to Brazil’s place in the world forum. What better acknowledgment of that significance than to bring the world’s athletes together in Rio de Janeiro? Brazil’s pride in this moment is as much deserved as the IOC’s decision to hold the games there, and the world has as much to gain when every participating nation sets their gaze on Brazil in 2016.
Congratulations, Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. Yours is an honor that, in this Yankee’s opinion, has not come soon enough.