2016: Chicago A No-Go

A few days ago it was announced that Chicago will not be hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. In fact, of all the cities that that made the final cut, we (I’m from 1.5 hours outside Chicago, I round up to say we) finished dead last. In other words, Chicago couldn’t even land the bronze….ouch.

If there was one word that could summarize their IOC’s decision, at least from an American standpoint, it would have to be surprise. By many’s estimations, Chicago was the front runner to host the summer games. Not winning it was unexpected, but to be the first eliminated…well I’m going to need Tony Harris’ help in expressing this…

In order to achieve the feeling of surprise, two things need to occur. 1) A set level of expectations and 2) Those expectations not being met. In this instance, we expected Chicago to win. Why? Because we (American’s) are arrogant. As a friend of mine once so eloquently put it, “America is the greatest planet on earth.” Don’t spend more than 3 seconds trying to make sense of that, you run the risk of cerebral hemorrhage.

I was also surprised. Not that we didn’t get the bid – I wasn’t following closely enough to have this expecation (It would have been cool for my home state’s city to host an international competition, but I didn’t lose sleep knowing it would be in Brazil). Rather, my surprise stems from people’s reactions to this decision.

Let’s start with those who were seen crying on national television after it was announced Chicago was eliminated. I understand that most Chicagoans wanted their city to be the center of attention for a while, but can we please keep things in perspective?

Roughly one week ago, the same city that was campaigning to host the world’s games, a teenager was brutally murdered in the midst of wild street brawl. Derrion Albert, while trying to pull a classmate out of the melee, fell victim to a group of teens who were, “viciously kicking and striking [the] 16-year-old honors student with splintered railroad ties.” I’ve included the footage below, but beware this video contains GRAPHIC VIOLENCE. Keep your kids away from this video (and this site in general).

If you’re able to watch that straight faced and then cry over the Olympics, you should be put to sleep because your soul has departed. I’m not saying those who cried about the Olympics weren’t distraught over this incident, but it’s hard to reach the point of tears over not hosting track and field when there are much, much, much more important issues happening around you.

On the other end of the spectrum, I can’t believe how ecstatic some American’s were that we lost the bid. Not happy, ecstatic. The reason being, because President Obama went to Copenhagen to campaign for the games (being a former community organizer in Chicago and Senator of Illinois), this meant his reputation was on the line. In the eyes of conservatives, if the IOC said no to Chicago, it was because they hated Barack Obama as much as the members of Fox News. See for yourself….

——(Fast forward to 7:45)——

OR

It’s amazing to me that any American can be so openly pleased about America failing. Those cheering the President’s failure to secure the 2016 Olympics were the same people who accused the Iraq war protesters (those protesting a war entered into under false premises) of being unpatriotic. We have officially reached a point where partisanship has surpassed nationalism.

Hopefully my next surprise will be a pleasant one.