After our national anthem was roundly booed in Canada and everyone hates us, can we send the '28 Olympics back for a refund?
What's the return policy for a global quadrennial sports extravaganza? Can we exchange the Games and Cup for credit toward a future purchase? And is it OK for us to boo ourselves?
It was not my proudest moment as an American, hearing my national anthem vociferously booed at Saturday night’s hockey showdown between the U.S. and Canada in Montreal. Even as I knew the Canadian fans were not booing me personally, and instead booing the American president for his suggestion that Canada become the 51st state - oh and the threat that he might invade them - it still felt like a personal affront to hear the anthem booed.
For those who want to add creative insult to injury, here are some possible 51-star flags that have been circulating - note that the top one was designed years ago with Puerto Rico’s statehood in mind, not Canada’s. Might be funny for Americans, not so much for Canadians. So they boo.
I do not believe that the fans in Montreal were booing the flag that Americans and Canadians carried together into battle on the beaches of Normandy1, dying side by side to preserve our freedoms.
These are freedoms that Donald Trump is summarily overturning, step by regime-changing step, not the freedoms symbolized the anthem that celebrates that awe-inspiring flag that, despite it all, was still there. And it still is.
But when the Star Spangled Banner is loudly booed by Canadians, that is not normal. To my knowledge, Old Glory has never been booed on foreign soil, even on enemy soil. Not in Beijing in 2008, nor in Putin’s Sochi in 2014 and not when Jesse Owens captured four golds in Hitler’s Berlin Olympiad in 1936. It’s never been booed anywhere, except by Americans.
American’s have protested the anthem, as is our right. We’ve worn that flag on the seat of our jeans and kneeled to protest racism. But that’s our internal scuffle, even when the protests have taken place outside the U.S., as with the Black Power salute during the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.
But Saturday’s unprecedented protest in Montreal tells us just how far we have fallen in the world’s eyes in just one month. This is how the world now sees us. Trump is hated, which is not new. But now America is hated. We, the people of America who didn’t vote for Trump, now have to wear this stain everywhere we go. This was not the case after 2016. It is now. We are the victims of conflated hatred.
Trump ‘R Us.
I now understand how people in Hungary and Turkey felt when I visited those places after their illiberal coups took place. One tour guide on the Turkish coast, far from the major cities and in a hushed voice, confided to a busload of Americans that she was embarrassed at her government and hoped Erdoğan wouldn’t last too long. He’s still there. I got a similar reply from a guide in Budapest, in English, when I asked how the current government treats Jews. I didn’t have to ask, having seen the antisemitic sign demonizing George Soros on the bridge crossing into Hungary from Slovakia. Orbán is still there too.
We now have the Trump stain on us. Canadians are boycotting us, which is just as well, because it’s embarrassing to speak with them. Our nation is hated, and for good reason. If I had no other means of protest, I’d boo too.
It seems like Barack Obama was wrong all along when he said, “Don’t boo - vote!” Canadians couldn’t vote last November. They were at the mercy of American voters to keep the hemisphere safe for democracy. We failed. The only thing they can do - aside from diverting Niagara Falls - is boo. So alas, boo they do. Boo hoo.
So now, what about the World Cup and L.A. Olympics?
Now that our anthem has been booed and we are universally hated by most countries that we respect, how can we hope to host the world in in its two most popular spectacles over the next few years?
Next year we host the World Cup, thankfully in a shared arrangement with Canada and Mexico, so everyone will need to be on their best behavior. I can’t wait to see the leaders of the three countries getting together for that one. I think people will be relatively respectful, anthem-wise, because of the shared ownership and because in the World Cup, all the countries basically hate each other anyway. If the British soccer hooligans show up en masse, everything else will pale in comparison.
My concern is the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, just before the US elects its next president (God willing). If Trump has somehow manipulated his way into a dictatorship, the Olympics will be the least of our problems. They would likely have to be cancelled because of mass rioting in the streets and a declaration of martial law.
But if he is simply angling to install his chosen successor in power, he will want to use the games for propaganda points, as they were used by Hitler in 1936. The Holocaust Encyclopedia explains what happened then:
I once visited the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and sat right behind the Chancellor’s box. Every inch of that stadium screams order and Teutonic perfection, the enormity of the state subsuming the creativity of the individual, and the superiority of the host’s culture and the Aryan race. Sculptures of perfectly sculpted nude male athletes greet you at the entrance. They don’t look anything like Jesse Owens up top and me down below, if you know what I mean.
These look nothing like the Olympic mascots we’ve come to know in recent years.
Hitler wanted a racist propaganda coup but Jesse Owens thwarted him with his four gold medals. As I sat in the empty stadium 80 years later, having walked the dedicated staircase leading to the Fuhrer’s box, I thought of the American Jewish runners, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, who were denied the chance to compete by American Olympic officials, ostensibly so as not to offend Hitler.
So what will happen if, say, an Algerian boxer becomes the subject of a MAGA witch hunt, accused of being transgender. This is not theoretical. It happened in Paris (she wasn’t). Or what if it was an American athlete who became fodder for the radical, hateful right, for that or some other reason, like say, refusing to call it the Gulf of America or to celebrate Trump’s birthday on June 14? What if an American medal contender turned out to be on ICE’s hit list? Will ICE be allowed to raid the Olympic village? Will athletes from “s-ithole countries” have trouble getting visas?
While Trump will want to make the Olympics a showpiece for the MAGA virtues of intolerance and his own version of racial purity, he’ll face two major obstacles that will ultimately foil his plans: a) the rest of the world and b) California.
Foreign nations may opt to boycott, as the U.S. did in 1980 and the Soviets in ‘84. Or threaten to boycott, as happened in 1936. Or make human rights demands, as happened before Beijing in 2008. A boycott may seem far-fetched now, but we are only one month into the new administration, Europeans are talking about creating a united army outside of NATO and Canadians are booing the Star Spangled Banner. Who planned on that? Imagine the embarrassment of the world threatening to boycott America because of human rights violations.
Macy’s - what’s your return policy? One Olympics, unused. Mint condition. Will you take it back?
And then there’s California.
The relationship between the White House and our largest state, not rosy to begin with, will become increasingly tense as green infrastructure is built, bills come due and the event takes on an increasingly Golden State glow. There will be an epic tug-of-war over this baby and the glory that goes with being the host. With every Trump threat to hold back natural disaster funds (and who knows what future disasters await), lurking in the background will be the question of who will get to bask in the role of shaping and hosting these games.
The Olympics budget is estimated to be nearly $7 billion, which will be raised through ticket sales and private sponsorships. But someone’s going to have to pay for the public transportation projects, fast lanes and 2700 new buses. The federal government is committed to paying for security. Would Trump dare withhold security money? We’re talking about an administration that just fired a slew of nuclear safety workers and is leaving our country perilously vulnerable to airline calamity, natural disaster and disease, so who knows? If you want to discuss an Olympics that was too light on security, there’s a good movie out right now that can jog your memory. It’s called “September 5.”
Spoiler alert: It does not end well.
Trump also just decimated the governing structure of our nation’s premier center for the arts, The Kennedy Center. Will he try to do the same with LA28’s governance, insisting on adding MAGA loyalists to the board? Will he undermine the creative mission of the games, which aims to bring a diverse community together and create a 21st century, sustainable city, more reliant on a revitalized public transportation system than the old gas-guzzling L.A. ever was? How does that jibe with “Drill, baby, drill?”
There’s even diversity in the logo:
Trump is all about big public events, and there is no question that he will try to hijack these games and exploit them. and whoever is governor of the state will have to stand up to enormous pressure - which is precisely what Californians love to do.
It all comes down to this question: When Trump hosts the Olympics, will the games reflect his values…or America’s?
And what are America’s values right now? Are we a city on a hill or a nation in decline? Are the stars and stripes that flew over Fort McHenry still a banner that yet waves, or just fodder for the boo-birds of Saint-Catherine Street?
And how can we protest the government without stepping on symbols that are sacred to us all? As we prepare for those big sporting events, we know that long before they arrive, each day will call upon us to exhibit courage that even our ancestors in Gettysburg and Iwo Jima - and all the Olympics combined - could admire. Just a different kind of courage. And a different kind of patriotism.
Saturday’s unprecedented protest in Montreal tells us just how far we have fallen in the world’s eyes in just one month. This is how the world now sees us. Trump is hated, which is not new. But now America is hated. We, the people of America who didn’t vote for Trump, now have to wear this stain everywhere we go.
So I don’t believe we should take our frustrations out on the flag. Canadians might have no other choice, but we can still vote. We still have many battles to fight, and we’re going to need that flag with us each step of the way. Don’t boo the anthem.
Think of this photo when you think of the Stars and Stripes.
Not this one.
We can't allow misdirected faux patriotism to distract us from the real patriotism of saving our country. We can be proud of the flag my father-in-law fought for and nearly died for in the Battle of the Bulge. No one should be able to take that pride from us. Even if many are skeptical of the American leaders of today, we share pride in what America can yet become.
So we can host the World Cup and Olympics ‘28 and be proud of it, despite the fact that I will have profound concerns about the guy sitting up in the VIP box, right next to the governor of California, Vlad Putin and Elon Musk.
And I hope my Bostonian compatriots do not boo the Canadian anthem at TD Garden for the 4-Nations Face-Off this week. The Canadian prime minister is not violating international law by threatening to invade, like our president is. They have every right to boo; we should not reciprocate. But knowing how Bostonians feel about Montreal, they will want revenge. So they’ll boo.
But just to be a sport, in L.A. in 2028, I might root for the Canadians in, say, Rugby sevens.
Canadian sailors, soldiers and airmen played a critical role in the Allied invasion of Normandy, also called Operation Overlord, beginning the bloody campaign to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation. Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, including 14,000 Canadians at Juno Beach. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 124 vessels and 10,000 sailors and the Royal Canadian Air Force contributed 39 squadrons to the operation. Total Allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000, including 1,096 Canadians, of whom 381 were killed in action. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties, including more than 18,700 Canadians. Over 5,000 Canadian soldiers died. (Canadian Encyclopedia)
I hate to hear our flag and country booed. I understand but I still hate it. As a post WWII child, I was raised by super patriotic parents, both veterans of that awful war. I was a Girl Scout which was all about patriotism. We learned extensively about the American flag. It was central to the Girl Scouts! And I grew into a patriotic adult. I didn’t vote for this chainsaw destroyer who is wrecking my beautiful country. I’m feeling very lost and depressed and a can’t find any real leadership to rally around and support to protest what’s going on! You must step up Democrats and help lead us out of the colossal mess we are in. Now! Before it’s too late! ⏰🇺🇸🥺💙. Thank you Rabbi Hammerman for your stirring essay this morning. Keep healthy, safe and keep writing!
Thank you Rabbi for your interpretation of this dilemma in which we find ourselves as Americans. Being raised by a father who spent two years on a Navy mine sweep in the South China Sea while a wife and two young sons (stateside) were waiting for him to return home, this divided America is gut-wrenching. He flew his American flag proudly every single day; not just holidays. He passed in 2001 before 9/11 which would have killed him. The current political climate is an insult to all who have served this once great and united country.