B71) The Russian Speed skater at the Olympics 1976

The first Olympic Games I remember watching with any real interest was the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal Canada. Dorothy Hamel was one of the stars from that Olympics. I had a wicked crush on her. Nadia Comaneci shocked the world with her amazing performances as a gymnast in the 1976 Olympic games. She was the first female gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. 

I was sixteen and recently became a new driver. A big deal for a sixteen year old. We lived on Morgan Lane in Hoffman Estates, IL. We had been there for two years at that point. It was a house. A big four bedroom ranch style house. Big back yard. It looked like middle town America. We actually had a house. A home. It's the first time I remember us ever owning a house. It was a taste of normalcy. A horrific tease.

The new house was brought to us partially by our new step dad. It began to feel like we might just end up with a greatly overdue dose of normalcy and stability. Freshman year I got almost straight A's. One lonely B on my report card.  Normalcy was all I needed in order for my academic endeavours to blossom.

I began to relax my posture.  Living in this new house began to feel good. I begin to believe. I thought we were on a good path. I was wrong. The taste of normalcy was nothing more than a tease. It had no permanence. The Permanency and normalcy was an illusion and temporary. What hurt the worst was getting fooled again. Motherfuckers. They fooled me again. At sixteen I thought I was beyond being fooled again. I was wrong.

The only permanence we were ever going to have was a lack of it. We permanently lacked permanence.

The Olympics were much easier to watch back in 1976. It was a simpler time. I've grown to understand how people from other generations can say when looking back "it was a simpler time"  The seventies were a much simpler time in comparison to the last decade.

When watching the Olympics back in 1976 there were not as many commercials. There was an abundance of information about the event or events being covered for the moment. Excellent interviews with current or former athletes. 

It's difficult to watch the Olympics now. Every minute seems to be canned with commercials. Obnoxious and disgusting commercials. The best option you have in watching the Olympics today is recording it and fast forwarding through the vile adult diaper commercials, the annoying erection commercials, insurance commercials, food commercials, food never consumed by world class athlete commercials. Nauseating commercials of one type or another.

The commercialization of the Olympics is a tragedy of Olympic proportion. No one cares. This is the new normal. The over commercialization of event possible is the goal of big business. Big business owns the world and they run in a way that fattens their coffers a little more every day. I can't stand the commercials.

Now I have a craving for McDonald's :-(

What I remember most about the 1976 Olympic games is this. I watched a speed skating race. Those athletes are amazing. The size of the quads on those skaters seems super human. Not normally an event I would watch but there I was. I was sitting in the family room with some of my sisters. I think my mom and step dad were in the room. All our eyes were transfixed onto the TV. It was kind of a family time. The speed skating race was won by a Russian gentleman. As usual they interviewed the Gold medal winner.
He was a Gold medal winner in the Olympics. It's a big deal. A very big deal. One of the biggest honors an athlete can obtain. It's the Gold medals of gold medal. In America a Gold medal translates into $$$$ Time to capitalize on all that training. All the hours of training. I’m not sure how it works for Russians.

The commentator ask the Russian gold medal winner what's next. What are the plans for your future. What were his hopes for the future.

His answer rocked my insignificant little world.

As it turned out the Gold medal winner had a full time job in Russia (or where ever his home town was). He was a fireman. His full time job was helping save the lives of his fellow citizens. He rescued people for his full time job. After a day of saving lives and making his community a better place to be he went to the ice skating rink and trained on his speed skating. He hope was to one day win a Gold medal for his family, his friends, his community. His Country.

They took the time to interview the Gold medal winner. He took the time to thank some people, his coaches, his teammates, his family, his friends. He won it for them.

The gold medal winner went on to say:

"I would surely give my gold medal up if only we could have peace in the world. Peace between American and Russia or rather The Soviet Union back then"

While holding the greatest prize any athlete can earn and possess his thoughts turn to peace across the world.

"I would surely give my gold medal up if only we could have peace in the world"

His words. His statement. His intention, all were awe inspiring.

As I tried to process the Russian's words they came up conflicting what I thought I knew about the russians. I was taught they were the enemy......In my mind I went through a long series of school textbooks, classroom discussions, news reports on TV and in the newspapers. I remembered movies, lots and lots of movies potraying russians as the enemy. They were even in the cartoons....all of this helped me to the conclusion the Russians were the bad people. America was the good..

These notions were programmed into me.

Someone has been lying to me. Someone has been lying to us. The skaters words changed me. Forever.

Who am I now?

"I would surely give my gold medal up if only we could have peace in the world"

The gold medal winner Those words changed me forever. Astonishment was exploding inside my mind. In my mind I watched a long series of lies and propaganda begin to fade away.

How can this be? I read in so many textbooks that the Russians were the enemy. I was taught in school they were bad. Evil. I watched movie after movie about the Russians being the enemy. I was taught they were bad and we were good. I was taught they wanted to hurt us, to hurt America. We needed a strong army to defend against them.

Now I watch this Russian fireman that won a gold medal and he offered to give it up in exchange for peace in the world. I don't ever recall hearing any American gold medal winners offering to give up their medals for world peace. This russian gentelman is not a bad guy. Why did the American government spend so much moneny in an effort to make me think the russians were the eneemy

Why did big business interests in American want me to hate russians? Why are the textbooks wrong? I have been lied to. We have been lied to. Americans have been lied to. The textbooks are wrong. The government is wrong. The news is wrong.
The seeds of contempt were planted in the fertile soil of my mind that day. They took root immediately. I'm changed. This changed me. Hearing that Russian gentleman speak those honest and heart felt words changed me.

 
At sixteen I thought, if you can't trust the government, if you can't trust the schools and textbooks, and if you can't trust the news/media, who can you trust?

I needed to hear that Russian gentleman speak. Maybe it was the beginning for me. The beginning of being woken up. Life is not what you think it is.

The Russians are not the enemy.

Who is?

Why does there always need to be an enemy?

What would are world be like if there was no enemy? Imagine what all that money, manpower and brainpower in action but not for war. Imagine all that working on peace and the betterment of humanity. This truly would be a garden of Eden. All we need to do is lose this need for the enemy.

But they keep lying to us.