Light Two Torches
On Paris, LA, and American Dreaming
The Olympics are a platform for some of the fastest, strongest, and most determined athletes in the world. Television coverage invites us into a small part of their worlds, briefly, and we are often moved by the experience. “Citius, Altius, Fortius”: “Faster, Higher, Stronger” was the Olympic motto until 2021.
The Olympics are also a platform for the host nation. A national Chamber of Commerce fantasy. Paris took advantage of this and painted a bright and bold masterpiece soaked in everything the world expected from the French. There were missteps, of course. But the use of the iconic architecture of one of the world’s most beautiful cities for the Opening Ceremony and for sports venues and backdrops was inspired. As they say, Hang It In The Louvre. Hang it all in the Louvre. I’m surprised the Ping Pong finals weren‘t actually held. . . . in the Louvre.
The Olympics are a carefully curated bubble, though, and France, politically, is a mess, of course. The last 250 years or so have been tough on representative democracies and republics with the rise of neo- and actual- Fascism and its cousins. But, just days before the Olympics began the French people voted to reject a majority Far Right government. God willing and the creeks don’t rise as some of my people say, we’ll do the same in November.
The torch has literally been passed now to Los Angeles in the United States of America. “LA 2028” will be our time to shine and to paint our own masterpiece, to use the canvas of this quadrennial event to show the world Who We Are.
But, Who Are We? Who we are now leads the world in two categories: percentage of our population imprisoned and military spending. Should the LA Olympic artistic director choreograph dancers in orange jumpsuits dancing in shackles down Sunset Boulevard? Maybe the Parade of Nations rolls down Rodeo Drive in tanks and armored personnel carriers instead of barges on the Seine while Lee Greenwood sings “I’m Proud To Be An American”. Or, instead of hiding or jailing the unhoused who are bankrupted by unreimbursed medical expenses we assemble, hydrate, and train them to perform A Tribute To Capitalism, in the finale of which the world watches them Pull Themselves Up By Their Own Bootstraps. I’m getting chills.
If, however, the Harris-Walz team prevails and other circumstances relegate just enough of the likes of Mitch McConnell to the sidelines — or home — where they belong, we have a chance to rekindle more than just the Olympic flame in the U.S. Can we, in the 4 years before LA 2028, at least begin to heal our most recent wounds and address honestly the wounds that have diminished us from our beginning, like slavery and its legacy? Can we cultivate a collective will to Make America Less Cruel and present to the world in those Opening Ceremonies a vibrant, humane, and enlightened America? It’s worth trying. To quote Olympic Gold Medalist and political commentator Kevin Durant: “A lot of bullshit happens in our country, but a lot of great things happen, too”.
It’ll take a leap of faith far more difficult than Tom Cruise’s tethered rappel from the top of Stade de France, and a kind of individual courage rarely seen in sports and almost never in American politics. The world news is filled daily with stories of patriots dying for their countries but almost never with an American politician willing simply to risk re-election by voting to justly tax billionaires or corporations. Or to fully fund public schools. Or, god forbid, build efficient and equitable public transportation. There are exceptions, of course, but American politics is the living embodiment of W.B. Yeats’ description: “The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity”. The “worst” here wear MAGA red or are politicians beholden to MAGA and feeding its voracious racism, greed, and hateful religious zealotry with cruel and unnecessary legislation that actually kills people and further divides us. Meanwhile, the “best” make and remake relentlessly embarrassing appeals to The Middle, impressing no one, changing no minds, engaging no new voters, and looking — ceaselessly — backwards.
Yes, I know politics is the Art of the Possible. But generations of lowered expectations and gaslighting has shrunk our idea of possibility so much that we’re reduced now to hoping simply “preventing Fascism” is possible. We don’t dream as a country any more. We shrug and accept. We get teary-eyed watching an Olympic athlete overcome challenges and against all odds achieve her dreams and then, on the same TV screen later that night, we watch numbly as the city bulldozes a homeless camp, full of people who have dreams, too.
Olympians dream big, and inspire us to wonder what that would be like. Along with the Olympic flame, can we light a second one? A flame we hold in our current darkness to see ahead rather than behind? One that gives us the courage to say out loud things that even the least successful of the democracies in Europe long ago took for granted? Especially because, despite what you’ve heard, we can afford it. Health care is a right. Women are equal. The poor have the right to housing and to travel, especially in their own cities, and the right to educate well their children regardless of their economic status.
It’s an uniquely American Tragedy that the nation that can most afford these basic human goods rejects them — patriotically — but still brags like a tired, uncurious old man about being the First To The Moon — 55 years ago.
The poor are rarely mentioned by even the Democrats any more, unless those poor are living on the streets (that we will surely “clean up” before the world arrives in LA in 2028) and then only because they’re bothersome and unsightly. The political battle for the Working Middle Class is a fine one, but also conveniently allows both parties to barely or never mention the growing hedge fund oligarchy that looms over everything (and finances both parties‘ political campaigns) or the poor. It doesn’t have to be that way. The “best” from Yeats’ poem can begin by telling MAGA, with conviction, to take several seats while reclaiming from them the passionate intensity this important work will require. Bobby Kennedy said “Some men see things the way they are and ask. ‘Why’. I dream things that never were and ask ‘Why not’”.
I do hope 2028 America is different than it is now. But, not because the Rule of Law is in the dust bin of history. I think people would love to be as inspired by social and justice change leaders as much as they are every four years by sprinters and gymnasts. In 2021, the International Olympic Committee added to its slogan. Since then, it has been “Citius, Altius, Fortius” and “Communiter” — Together. If we decide now that our strength lies in recognizing that everyone is made stronger by improving the lives of the poorest and weakest among us, the pride we display during LA 2028’s. Opening Ceremonies will be less about the past, and more about America’s future.
