Lantern Column 2/24/10

This piece was published in the Ohio State University Lantern Wednesday February 24 2010.
This will sound like an over-caffeinated swipe at the tea-bagger types from a guy who should know better how far such things go, but bear with me.  As I write this, Vancouverites are waving the five-ringed flags of the 2009 Winter Olympics, with all the fanfare involved, and good for them.  There’s nothing like watching athletes strive for the Olympic ideal of Citius, Altius, Fortius--Swifter, Higher, Stronger, as those ideals relate to sporting endeavors.  Curling, for example, a cross between ice-skating, and housecleaning.  What a thrill!  The challenge of the super G, the grace of paired figure skating, and the raw athleticism of cross-country anything is enough to make us proud, Canadian or not.  It’s all very inspiring, hey?
    I believe we should add a fourth Latinate attachment to the ideals-Acutulior, Smarter, modern equivalent games for intellectual pursuits.  Call them the Thinkolympics.  These ‘mind games’ would be a forum where mentaletes from all five continents compete for medals in such individual and team sports as hunger-elimination plans, nuclear deterrence, clean water initiatives or micro-finance ideas.  Mentaletes could win their gold, silver and bronze based on their knowledge of current events, world history, world religions, economic factors that affect us all. They could win medals, careers, even endorsements from entrepreneurial governments, or private citizens. 
       Sadly, as I write this, 36% of Americans believe our government was involved in the attacks of September 11th 2001; 33% do not believe in global climate change❊, many believe a recent urban myth that a directory of cell phone numbers will soon be published!  The Cellow-Pages?  Puh-lllease!  I recently heard this actual conversation about the health care debate, from an actual living person, quote: “Of course Congress should pay for it, otherwise the taxpayers will have to!”  You can’t make this stuff up.  Here’s another one: “If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.”  Everybody knows he spoke Christian!
    The point, of course, is that we need to accentuate intellectual pursuit more than we do.  I’m no Pollyandy, but when we devote more money to a three week Olympic spectacle than we allocate for the entire year of the U.S. Department of Education, there are at least opportunities for questions.  It cost the Chinese $58.7 Billion dollars to host the Beijing games in 2008; the 2011 budget for U.S. education is $50.3 Billion and change.  
    When I was a kid, this nation was shocked into action when our Russian friends managed to put Sputnik in orbit.  It was a little fifty pound orb, not much bigger than a basketball.  But the satellite’s presence above our heads in October 1957 was scarier than any Halloween prank.  I can still hear it’s ominous beep-beep-beep on the evening newscast.  Sputnik’s launch was a podium event for Russia, a gold medal in the international pursuit of scientific one-upmanship, the Thinkolympics of the fifties.  That little silver ball beeping away jolted the U.S. into a race with the Soviets that was more intellectual than physical.  We have issues today that are much more urgent than a little silver ball.  And we need an olympic effort to address them. 


❊The Atlantic--January/February 2010