RNS Quote of the Day, 4/21/08
From a sign in San Francisco protesting China’s hosting of the Olympics:
Would we allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics?
That sound you hear is history teachers beating their heads against the wall.
My buddy’s eyewitness account below the fold.
My law school buddy works in downtown SF, right on the planned torch route, so he and coworkers decided to check it out. Of course, the route was changed. Still, he says:
we saw some interesting signs that people were carrying, including a non-sequitur “you stole kosovo!” (off the top of my head i can’t think of anyone responsible for “stealing” kosovo. maybe the kosovars themselves?). another one, painstakingly hand-printed but quite ignorant of history, read, “would we allow nazi germany to host the olympics?” i didn’t have the heart to go up to the poor lady protester and tell her that, uh um, the nazis actually DID hold an olympics in berlin. 1936, jesse owens beating the aryan supermen, “triumph of the will”?
Not to mention that’s where the whole idea of the torch came from. Sigh.
