Editorial/War Games
Tyrrell, R.Emmett Jr.
"Editorial/War Games" As I write, thousands of visitors to the Olympic Games in Moscow --journalists, athletes, and ardent sports fans--are hunkering about, dodging two hundred thousand...
...E D I T 0 R I A L WAR GAMES As I write, thousands of visitors to the Olympic Games in Moscow --journalists, athletes, and ardent sports fans--are hunkering about, dodging two hundred thousand Soviet security agents...
...modern games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin (I863-1937), was a scholar and educator who believed that much of the Greeks' Golden Age was owing to their emphasis on sport and sports festivals...
...The Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, muscular Christian, perennial activist, and president of Notre Dame, was quoted recently as saying: "When you've got 8 million unemployed, I think it's idiotic to take more people in...
...Carter himself was once district governor of the Lions International (1968-1969), and he hails from an area abundant with Elks, Moose, Rotarians, and societies of less favored repute...
...May they display cheerfulness and concord," he booms, "so that the Olympic torch may be carried with ever greater eagerness, courage, and honor for the good of humanity throughout the a g e s . " After the games, I hope Lord Killanin will read this glorious statement in every Afghan village, once the poison gas has cleared...
...Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its members ate elected for life after the most vigorous scrutiny...
...I leave it to Lord Killanin and to the exalt6s of the IOC to judge the Olympic movement's success in this area...
...Over-this joyous sports festival the American flag does not fly, a deficiency for which Jimmy Carter is in very hot water with Lord Killanin, preeminent potentate of the 'Comit6 International Olympique (IOC...
...No meeting of Shriners or Knights of Pythias can match them...
...The games are circumscribed by the most grandiose ceremony...
...I would have referred them to several learned tomes essential for understanding Lord Killanin's Adapted from RET's Monday Column in the Washington Post...
...Senators in Washington spend a large and increasing proportion of their time taking money away from some people and distributing it to others...
...More distressing is a recent article by Senator Walter Huddleston of Kentucky...
...The founder of the by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...As he entered the twentieth century the Baron hoped that by reviving the Olympics the twentieth century would be more peaceful and civilized than the century he was then...
...But it is not possible . . . . Our economy and our political system simply could not stand the strain...
...Has it occurred to him, I wonder, that the refugees could help to build new houses...
...This was rather insultingly posted right where the refugees could see it--on the op-ed page of the Miami Herald...
...What did he fhink the IOC was ~inyway...
...Oh no...
...During the Games' opening ceremonies, as dutiful members of the KGB were smashing cameras and kicking groins, I repaired to my archives, there to steep myself in the lore of the IOC...
...Webster, and Positive Thinkers by Donald Meyer...
...The THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1980 5...
...They did not understand the workings of the International Olympic Committee...
...There was much to learn, and I certainly wish Ham and Jody had called me before upsetting Lord Killanin...
...For that matter, Papa Brezhnev adores parades...
...population is helpless...
...arcane world, namely: TheApproved History of the Olympic Games by...
...One reads on, curious...
...the U.S...
...One suspects here that Senator Huddleston, not having experienced anything else Tom Bet~veil is The American Spectator's Washington editor...
...They did not understand the workings of the international federations and national federations...
...exiting...
...There is the entry parade, the official uniforms, the trumpet fanfare, the raising of the Olympic flag, the release of the Olympic pigeons, the artillery salute, the arrival of the sacred flame (a sine qua non[), the benediction, and the singing of the glorious Olympic hymn--all are punctiliously prescribed in the sacred manual by the boys back in Lausanne...
...Why "have to...
...He seems to think that "we" (the government...
...The Senator is thinking paternalistically here...
...I'n a fuller explication of his complaint this illustrious international sportsman lamented that, when the Carter administration decided to boycott, "They did not understand how sport is organized in the world...
...William Henry and Patricia Henry Yeomans, Olympic Cavalcade by F.A.M...
...The HEW inspector general has found that refugees compete for scarce housing in many areas," Huddleston writes...
...First the huddled masses survive Castro's police state, then they brave the sea in open boats, only to find, nailed to the golden door, some derogatory observations by the senior Senator from Kentucky...
...C A P I T O L I D E A S SCUTTLED MASSES by Tom Bethell The recent influx of refugees from the police state in Cuba has put the topic of immigration back in the news once agai n . As usual, poor and longsuffering Americans have been subjected to a barrage of ignorant comment from their nominal leaders...
...like so many native-born heartlanders), does not fully appreciate the attractiveness of a pofitical system that allows most voluntary transactions between individuals to take place...
...It is an idea, a dream, a movement, a gathering of men wearing blazers who come from all over the world to further certain numinous principles, and, admittedly, to have a few drinks...
...Accordingly, Huddleston and his fellow incomeredistributors on Capitol Hill, to assuage their consciences, have long since grown comfortable with the notion that a sizeable portion of the U.S...
...How could our President be so ignorant of the ritual and science of Lord Killanin's IOC...
...It is an awesome array of charges...
...In the course of carrying out its high purposes, the IOC awards cups and diplomas to local Olympic federations, and it holds the Olympic games...
...The "massive exodus" from Cuba demonstrates that "the immigration policy of the United States is out of control," Huddleston begins...
...During this swell pageant every IOC member sways and beams...
...This activity is more likely to seem justifiable to legislators if they believe that the recipients are unable to help themselves...
...They did not understand how national Olympic committees work...
...must provide "them" with a living, as though " t h e y " were unable to help themselves--as though immigrants were mere legtess and armless torsos that had to be fed and clo.thed...
...We all know how much he liked paradesl hymns, and artillery salutes...
...Why the hell the IOC would allow a world war to interrupt their schedule is incomprehensible...
...It would be good if we could invite all the repressed of the world to come to the United States and provide them with a decent standard of living...
...At the end of every Olympiad the IOC President in accordance with the IOC ritual asks the youth of the world to reassemble in four years...
...Senate...
...The IOC is no dilettantes' clique...
...There is the greeting of the host country's chief of state by the IOC President...
...Yet if the IOC did not want to distract der F~hrer, why not ask Mussolini...
...But that the fault somehow lies with us...
...His 1936 facilities were still intact...
...How come...
...Surely in 1940 and 1944 the late Adolph would have gladly hosted them...
...My guess is that he would gladly host the Olympics every year, especially if the ceremonial opening march could include 4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1980 some tanks and short-range ballistic missiles...
...Since the first games in 1896, theIOC has grown heavy with honors and responsibilities...
...the taxpayers...
...Briefly put, his Lordship finds our great President ill-informed on "sporting matters...
...Not, mind you, that Fidel Castro is out of control, or that the United States thus demonstrates itself to be an attractive place...
...Hesburgh is chairman of the President's Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, in case you were wondering who asked his opinion...
...The games have been held every four years except during World War I and World War II...
...Naturally, Cuban immigrants are thought of in the same way...
...Huddleston forges ahead with the observation that, as a result of our "lack of policy," taxpaying citizens, "through their federal, state, and local governments, will have to shoulder a growing financial burden...
...He seems to have in the back of his mind one of those old southern plantations, on which, for all I know, he may have been reared...
...Once elevated to the Comit6 their first loyalty must be to it, not to nationality, an arrangement somewhat similar to that of the Sacred College of Cardinals...
Vol. 13 • September 1980 • No. 9
