Sunday, August 24, 2008
Quick, Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"

History in the making

 

By Hunt Archbold

“Zai jian” to the Beijing Olympics and all the hype, athletic excellence and controversy you brought. And “hello” to the kickoff of football and the fourth quarter of a historic presidential election, with all the twisting and turning storylines you’ll provide in this autumnal season of change. Which teams will rise to the top? Who might next move into the White House? How can Alabama’s Nick Saban not beat Louisiana-Monroe, but still land on the cover of Forbes magazine? History, as always, is in the making.

Saban is profiled in Forbes because he’s the highest-paid coach ever in the storied history of college football, which, thanks in part to a “sugar bowl’’ full of sweet TV money and “high cotton’’ bowl game payouts, is now a $2 billion-a-year industry. That’s a 25 percent increase in the last four years. Yes, the ever-growing and obsessive love Americans have for the game of football continues to make the college version into a very big business indeed. But so were these Olympics, where international relations were forged, athletic-related deals were struck and big money was made, all while other needing-to-be-heard voices remained silent.

Forty thousand dollars is what U.S speed skater Joey Cheek of Greensboro, N.C., was owed in United States Olympic Committee bonus money for winning a gold and silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. But Cheek donated all of his money to Right To Play, an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization, and then returned home to co-found and serve as president of Team Darfur, a collection of international athletes committed to raising awareness about, and helping bring an end to, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
 
Opinions differ as to whether the Olympic stage should be a spot for political and social commentary. But whereas the Games were both a political and economic bonanza for China, it was rather evident how the Chinese officials felt about others exhibiting free speech. A small Beijing park had been designated as a place where protests could be staged, but the Games ended without a single event there, as state officials utilized fear tactics, application-approval difficulties and, in some cases, imprisonment in discouraging would-be protesters. Currently attending Princeton University, where he studies economics and Chinese, Cheek, because of his affiliation with Team Darfur, had his entrance visa revoked by China a few hours before he was to depart for the Games.

Disappointingly, the USOC remained silent when Cheek’s visa was denied. Possibly more disturbing was International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge reprimanding sprinter Usain Bolt for his chest-pounding celebration during his domination of the 100-meter final, saying, “That’s not how we perceive being a champion.”

Really? Rogge is calling out a Jamaican sprinter for being excited? While the IOC and its corporate CEO hold their noses, staging a world party in a host country that has shown stubborn support for murderous regimes, restricts religious freedom, censors the Internet, and imprisons more journalists than any country in the world? When it asked for the Olympics, China said that it would “enhance” human rights. Speaking their language, one might say, “dui-bu-qi?” (“Excuse me?”) While the full impact of these Games probably can’t be judged for another decade, it appears for now that China will continue to do as it pleases and worry about history’s view another day.

And as Barack Obama and John McCain continue their march toward history, the election process has reached the point of conventions and vice-presidential choices. Their choice of running mates will be strategically made for the optimum amount of benefits. Let’s hope their selections aren’t as world-changing as the one George W. Bush made. Dick Cheney has wielded and abused the power of his office like none before him. Little did we know how much history would change with regard to the range of influence—from national defense to energy, Supreme Court nominees, Cabinet turf squabbles, budget appeals and tax proposals—that Cheney’s bullied his way to in the White House.

What will history make of Cheney? Time will tell. But it will demonstrate that through the use of lawyers, and while keeping key Bush Cabinet players outside the decision-making circle, Cheney was instrumental in deceiving America into a war in Iraq, even though congress had not passed a declaration of war, as required by the Constitution. And while eight years later, Cheney is ridiculed in the press and his approval ratings are in the teens, he’s very much like China in that he’s going to do as he pleases. He’s content to ride off into the Wyoming sunset, with nary a care about how the rest of us think of him, only how history does. 

Happy Times … really, they are. SP