What Michelle Obama didn't tell the Olympics Committee
While Michelle Obama fruitlessly pimped (oh ok, shilled, promoted) her corrupt, broke and now nationally known violent, native town, as a site for the 2016 Olympics, for the first time in her life she was seemingly proud of it.
Her neighborhood
of working families -- families with modest homes and strong values.Sports were what brought our community together. They strengthen our ties to one another.
It was also, and still is, a relatively high crime neighborhood. It is a testimony to Michelle and her parents that she emerged relatively unscathed except with a huge, but somewhat understandable, chip on her shoulder. Many of the proposed venues for the games would be in or near her old neighborhood she noted, which is also not far from her former employer, the University of Chicago, an institution, which for some reason never reached out to her as a "promising student" as she once whined.
She continued her plea.
Sports were a gift I shared with my dad -- especially the Olympic Games.Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad's lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis, and....
...others for their brilliance and perfection. Like so many young people, I was inspired. I found myself dreaming that maybe, just maybe, if I worked hard enough, I, too, could achieve something great.
But I never dreamed that the Olympic flame might one day light up lives in my neighborhood.
But today, I can dream, and I am dreaming of an Olympic and Paralympic Games in Chicago that will light up lives in neighborhoods all across America and all across the world; that will expose all our neighborhoods to new sports and new role models; that will show every child that regardless of wealth, or gender, or race, or physical ability, there is a sport and a place for them, too.
That's why I'm here today. I'm asking you to choose Chicago. I'm asking you to choose America.
Little Nadia Comaneci, the star of the 1976 Olympics as a Romanian, now living in America with her American husband, fellow Olympian Bart Connor, was part of the Chicago entourage of the Obama patron, Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, pleading for a chance to host the games. To "choose America" so Obama can be proud of her country and help her cronies get their share of the inevitable graft.
It is the Chicago Way. But now they'll have to turn to something else. And they will. It is the Chicago Way.
But that's not the only reason she wanted the games in her neighborhood, her city, her country.
I'm also asking as a daughter.See, my dad would have been so proud to witness these Games in Chicago. And I know they would have meant something much more to him, too.
You see, in my dad's early thirties, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. And as he got sicker, it became harder for him to walk, let alone play his favorite sports. But my dad was determined that sports continue to be a vital lifeline -- not just to the rest of the world, but to me and my brother. (snip) my dad taught us the fundamental rules of the game, rules that continue to guide our lives today: to engage with honor, with dignity, and fair play.
My dad was my hero.
And when I think of what these Games can mean to people all over the world, I think about people like my dad. People who face seemingly insurmountable challenges, but never let go. They work a little harder, but they never give up.
(snip)
Chicago's vision for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement is about so more than what we can offer the Games -- it's about what the Games can offer all of us. It's about inspiring this generation, and building a lasting legacy for the next.
It's about our responsibility as Americans not just to put on great Games, but to use these Games as a vehicle to bring us together; to usher in a new era of international engagement; and to give us hope; and to change lives all over the world.
Well obviously the Olympics committee had a different vision, eliminating the city on the first round of voting.
And if, oh please no, Obama is re-elected, the Olympics would have been a fitting end to his tenure. And his powers of persuasion.
So Chicago isn't getting the Olympics--eliminated on the first round. 2012 election, here we come!