http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/15/vancouver-winter-olympics-2010
I wish I had written the following in response to the article by Lawrence Donegan in the February 15th of the UK Guardian. This says it all:
I wish I had written the following in response to the article by Lawrence Donegan in the February 15th of the UK Guardian. This says it all:
We never claimed to be perfect
That means we've learned to be humble
We say excuse me and I'm sorry as well as please and thanks
Even when its not our fault we apologize
Sure one arm of the torch didn't rise,
But when the earthquake struck Haiti, Canadians raised their hands to say we'll help
And yah, there is a fence around the torch
But you can walk right up and shake hands with our prime minister and most famous Canadians
We put Gretzky in the back of a pick up, in the rain, not surrounded by police and he was okay
And by the way... The great one is Canadian and he wasn't complaining!
We do have security at the games, of course, but most people don't even have a gun they have to leave at home
The medals ARE under lock and key but our doors and our hearts are open to the world
It has been pointed out that some buses broke down last week but let's not overlook the fact that our banking system didn't
We didn't get the "green ice maker" right this time but we will, eventually
Just like we did when we invented the zamboni
Citius altius fortius
If you don't reach higher how do you get faster and stronger
Was the first quad jump perfect?
Should we not have given snowboarding to the world "in case" it didn't take off?
So big deal one out of four torch arms didn't rise. Good thing we had 3 more! It's called contingency planning!
But remember the Canada-arm works every time in outerspace and insulin turned out to be okay
We couldn't change the weather but maybe we can help stop global warming
We don't have the tax base of the US or the power of the Chinese but, per capita, we ponied up for some pretty kick-ass venues in the worst global recession ever
Sure, some folks couldn't afford tickets but our health care is universal
We have shown the world that we can raise our voices in celebration and song but moments later stand in silence to respect a tragic event...together..spontaneously and unrehearsed.
What's more, we don't need permission from anyone to have a slam poet, fiddlers with piercings and a lesbian singer tell our story to the world, while our multilingual female haitian- born,( black) head of state shares a box with her first nations equals
We've shown the world that it doesn't always rain in Vancouver, that you can strive for excellence but not get hung up on perfection
And we've learned what it feels like to be picked on by some no name newspaper guy and we don't have to take it lying down!
So the point is not the snow, or the hydraulics or a couple guys being 5 minutes late to a ceremony
We know we're lucky that these are the biggest problems we had to deal with in the last couple weeks.
So take your cheap shots Guardian newspaper and cynics of the world!!!
We're bigger and better than that.
What's more we're finally starting to believe it!
Do you believe? We do!!
That means we've learned to be humble
We say excuse me and I'm sorry as well as please and thanks
Even when its not our fault we apologize
Sure one arm of the torch didn't rise,
But when the earthquake struck Haiti, Canadians raised their hands to say we'll help
And yah, there is a fence around the torch
But you can walk right up and shake hands with our prime minister and most famous Canadians
We put Gretzky in the back of a pick up, in the rain, not surrounded by police and he was okay
And by the way... The great one is Canadian and he wasn't complaining!
We do have security at the games, of course, but most people don't even have a gun they have to leave at home
The medals ARE under lock and key but our doors and our hearts are open to the world
It has been pointed out that some buses broke down last week but let's not overlook the fact that our banking system didn't
We didn't get the "green ice maker" right this time but we will, eventually
Just like we did when we invented the zamboni
Citius altius fortius
If you don't reach higher how do you get faster and stronger
Was the first quad jump perfect?
Should we not have given snowboarding to the world "in case" it didn't take off?
So big deal one out of four torch arms didn't rise. Good thing we had 3 more! It's called contingency planning!
But remember the Canada-arm works every time in outerspace and insulin turned out to be okay
We couldn't change the weather but maybe we can help stop global warming
We don't have the tax base of the US or the power of the Chinese but, per capita, we ponied up for some pretty kick-ass venues in the worst global recession ever
Sure, some folks couldn't afford tickets but our health care is universal
We have shown the world that we can raise our voices in celebration and song but moments later stand in silence to respect a tragic event...together..spontaneously and unrehearsed.
What's more, we don't need permission from anyone to have a slam poet, fiddlers with piercings and a lesbian singer tell our story to the world, while our multilingual female haitian- born,( black) head of state shares a box with her first nations equals
We've shown the world that it doesn't always rain in Vancouver, that you can strive for excellence but not get hung up on perfection
And we've learned what it feels like to be picked on by some no name newspaper guy and we don't have to take it lying down!
So the point is not the snow, or the hydraulics or a couple guys being 5 minutes late to a ceremony
We know we're lucky that these are the biggest problems we had to deal with in the last couple weeks.
So take your cheap shots Guardian newspaper and cynics of the world!!!
We're bigger and better than that.
What's more we're finally starting to believe it!
Do you believe? We do!!
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