Stars, stripes and unanswered questions
It’s a golden year for athletics in the United States. The nation is hosting the FIFA World Cup during the summer and the World Baseball Classic in March. Citizens are tuning in every night to watch our compatriots participating in the Olympics.
Sports have been viewed as a great unifier for centuries. From the early days of the Roman Empire where gladiators brawled to the enjoyment of the populous, to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team that took down the Soviet Union’s Red Army. Nelson Mandela was famous for his usage of rugby to unify the fractured nation of South Africa, and while appearing at the 2000 Laureus World Sports award, he said it best.
“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”
There’s a feeling around the nation right now. National pride is no longer appropriate.
It’s nothing against our participating athletes. They’ve worked tirelessly to be where they’re at and deserve respect for what they do. We wouldn’t want them to be denied the fame they’ve earned through years of hard work.
We’ve seen citizens killed in the streets of Minneapolis for exercising their First Amendment right to protest. Natural born citizens have been arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Performers are told they aren’t Americans while being born in its territories. Our athletes told, in short, their opinions and hard work don’t matter.
The tragic events in Minnesota are well documented. Two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, were murdered by ICE agents during protests of the organization’s involvement within deportations in the city. Both sides of the story have been documented. Pretti and Good on one side, ICE on the other.
In the same city, we watched a five-year-old boy be taken by ICE; a preschooler. He was on his way back from school, blue bunny hat on, spiderman back pack slung over his shoulder. Reports stated that the child was used by masked agents to knock on the door of his home to see if anyone else was there.
Any discussions involving the name “Bad Bunny” in the leadup to his performance in the Super Bowl were immediately met with statements that he isn’t an American. The backlash became so normalized that one of the first queries on Google is: “Is Bad Bunny an American citizen?” Puerto Ricans have been citizens of the United States since 1917.
We have members of the Olympic team echoing what had already been presented. Multiple athletes have said that they aren’t necessarily representing what the nation stands for by donning the stars and stripes. These comments again, were met with immediate backlash, with remarks ranging from, “Very hard to root for someone like this,” to, “Move to Canada if you aren’t proud to represent the U.S.”
With everything going on, it’s hard to be positive about our nation, and if we’re as divided as presented here, how can anyone have pride in their nation? We were always told that America is the: “Land of the free, and the home of the brave.”
From a young age, it was instilled in us that community is a core value of this nation. But with the current state of our nation: it’s hard to have national pride.