The Olympic Curse, The Growing Arrogance of St-Stevie and Be Careful What You Wish For

Well folks, the Owelympics, Perilympics, no matter what you call them are almost over. What a  curse these games were!

Let’s recap: the horrific death of the young unknown Georgian Luger, the unseasonably warm weather causing events to be postponed and reduced ticket sales and/or reimbursements, the  protests that went awry, the deaths of Joanie Rochette’s mother, a shuttle bus driver and Andrew Koenig and of course that debt that will be sacked on the B.C. taxpayers.

I bring up the chain of events because it all seems to be lost on that whole own the podium thingey and our growing American styled arrogance that goes along with it.

Another curse would be St-Stevie’s numbers starting to go back up due to what pollsters are calling the “olympic bounce”. It’s as if St-Stevie is being given credit for our record gold medal wins and that own the American styled arrogance podium thingey. According to Frank Graves of Ekos, Stevie is enjoying that “Olympic bounce”--a new catch phrase pollsters seem to use a lot lately.

I may have boycotted these games, but I do catch the news and listen to radio. I am aware of how we broke the home turf curse of gold medals. I also have read many of the bloggers and pundits out there to notice that St-Stevie is being heaped a  lot of praise for that olympic program, thus allowing for him to take the credit for these medal wins. Many of the Blogging Tories would be too ga ga giddy over it.

We are currently sitting in third place for medal count. I wonder if the Harpercons are crediting that sleazy Nancy Greene and Porky Puffy Duffy to that? Surely the Harpercon cheerleaders are.

Honestly,  what I’m shocked with is so many people forgetting what had to happen to Vancouver’s most vulnerable in order for these Olympics to happen. Folks even stopped paying attention to the protests. I expect this from neo-con St-Stevie supporters: they don’t care about the poor or disenfranchised by nature. I am, however, shocked at progressives remaining glued to the Olympics though. How come more didn’t boycott? What is particularly scary is if we can’t even boycott something as simple as the Olympics; something absolutely no one needs to sustain life, how do we convince them to give up other things they don’t need for the greater good? Do they realize that this Olympic frenzy simply feeds into St-Stevie’s agenda? Have we forgotten or even forgiven his transgressions?

Have we also forgotten about the poor and disenfranchised of  Vancouver, as well as the B.C. tax payers who will be stuck for many years to come with this bill?  All that money which could have gone to further assist these folks. According to a recent column in the Vancouver Sun, B.C. has the highest cost of living in Canada as well as the highest child poverty rate as well as the lowest minimum wage.

Then, there’s that whole patriotism thing.  No one should start in on that one. Patriotism is not having the best hockey team in the world or hosting a sporting event that pretty much further squashes the poor and disenfranchised. Take a look at the whole hero worship of Joanie Rochette. Would she have gotten this same royal treatment had she backed out of the Olympics to go back home to help the family bury her mother and deal with the grief? Of course not. I would like to believe that we would be understanding of it, but she wouldn’t have been considered to have patriotism for her country. What if she hadn’t won a medal?  Again, we probably would have understood, but again, she wouldn’t have gotten this much air time.

Now,  the ‘best’ is now saved for last. The men’s Olympic Hockey final. NHL ers playing against each other, just like they do every week, every winter.  Oh, how special! Due to the fact that hockey is more than a sport in Canada; it’s practically a religion, this potential gold medal would be THE most important of ‘em all! A silver just won’t seem to cut it to hear folks tell it. In fact, a silver would be a rather noisy disappointment to the point it would more than likely cancel out all the other Canadian accomplishments, including the bronze medal of Joanie Rochette. No, only a gold would be acceptable in our religion of hockey.

Well, I will be lambasted for this by both progressives and neo-cons.  I can only hope that my progressive readers will understand eventually though.  The only good thing for Canada’s future is for us to lose against the Americans this afternoon. Yes, you heard it here. I do hope we lose. Imagine with the medal count to date, St-Stevie is enjoying his ‘olympic boost’  and has gone up in the polls. Surely, if we win this afternoon’s hockey final,  St-Stevie’s numbers will  likely shoot right back up to where they were before prorogation; in majority territory. Unfortunately, the reality is that Canadians are becoming more like Americans in liking very shiny things like hockey gold medals. No doubt the Harpercon cheerleaders will take credit for that ‘owe the podium’ thingey and will be splashy about it and many Canadians would swallow it up. St-Stevie’s transgressions are not only forgiven, but they’re forgotten.

Perhaps if they do lose, readers will blame me. Oh well. I have thick skin.

Whatever happened to patriotism being about how we treated our neighbours and whether or not we helped our fellow man on a daily basis?   Perhaps we need to be reminded:

True patriotism will never be found in Stephen Harper’s aggressive flag waving or shouted superiority. Canadians honour their country best through the way they live their lives. Through neighbourly kindness, everyday decency and the respect we extend to our fellow citizens when no one is watching. Without these human qualities, the rest is just empty rhetoric and hot air.

I sincerely hope that we can all remember that when we come out of the madness that will surely occur whether or not the Canadian NHL beats out the American NHL this afternoon.