Thanks to YouTube commentator Matt Walsh, we count at least four American ingrates at these winter Olympics, which is not so bad.
During a previous Olympics, in Tokyo, I counted dozens of such athletes who dished dirt against their country in front of the cameras.
Americans, and only Americans, did this.
“Activist Athlete" is what they called themselves.
Appropriately, I wrote an op-ed about this, July 8, 2021, titled “Are Olympic ingrates strictly an American thing?"
Permit me to offer selections from that column as they apply, or do not apply to the present. For the full column, I. recommend my book, “Writings."
Before that, lets agree that the country is substantially different today, under Trump, than it was back then under Biden.
Under Biden we were Woke, a nation ashamed of itself, as reflected in those Olympics of 2021, generally speaking, and generally speaking, today we are MAGA.
Different leader, different country. Amazing how this happens.
So back then, we wrote, “We do not know for sure about the gold. But as for snubbing the anthem, the smart money says USA."
Right we were, for 2021.
Onward, “Maybe they were just bored. America, you know, big deal."
No respect for flag, no love of country and so it was for our women’s soccer team, and other activist athletes in Biden’s America.
Further, “It is an attitude, some might say, that comes when people have it too good, too easy, and so get too jaded, too spoiled."
“Pride in the country you represent is taken to be automatic. Back in Biden’s USA, ingratitude appears to have replaced patriotism.
“Griping is all we do these days, at home and abroad.
“You would think that America, the place millions run to for freedom and opportunity, is the only nation on earth that suffers from imperfections.
‘’You would think that the rest of the world is perfect.
“That’s because for the rest of the world, flag and anthem are sacred. That goes even for countries where seldom is there freedom or opportunity.
“But watch them as they clasp hands and sing their hearts out for their own anthems. Lower Slobbovia ain’t much, they could be thinking, but it is home.
“What then, about this land of plenty, this land so many love…but still, somehow, produces so many ingrates."
So it was. Thank goodness times have changed for the better. Much better.
Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings."
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the gambling thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
From the esteemed John w. Cassell: “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the. conscience of us all."