Transcript
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Ari Weitzman (1:01)
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Ari Weitzman (1:05)
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Ari Weitzman (1:39)
This is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place where you get views from across the political spectrum. Some independent thinking in a little bit of our take. I'm your host for TODAY managing editor Ari Weitzman, and I'm giving you a lot of my take. Today I'm going to be talking about the Winter Olympics. Some of the reflections that I had from watching it, from the athletes who competed for our country and the controversy that surrounded the Olympic men's hockey team. I don't really have anything else to talk about today other than that, so I'm going to dive right into it. This piece is written in three parts, so let's start with part one, Sports in America. Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved even numbered years because I absolutely love the Olympics. They combine my two truest boyhood passions Sports and America I was a sports obsessed little Pittsburgh kid when I was nine, I won a contest at a local video rental store ahead of Super Bowl XXX by correctly identifying the first points the Steelers ever scored in super bowl as a blocked punt SA safety. Before I even entered junior high, I'd been to several dozen Penn State football games with my dad and probably about a dozen wrestling meets. I can still name the five Pittsburgh Penguins who won gold medals with what was then called the Czech Republic at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Jamir Jagr, Marty Straka, Yuri Slager, Robert Lang and Jan Hordena, as well as each of their jersey numbers 68, 82, 71, 20 and 38 respectively. No need to fact check me, I promise. That's right. I also remember being starstruck when I got to be a ball boy for a Team USA soccer game in Hershey and I actually got to feed the legendary Mia Hamm for a throw in. As a small Editor's note here it came to my attention during fact checking that Joseph Baranic played eight games of the Penguins in 1998. I stand by my comments. I was also a very patriotic youngster. My first favorite toy was a puzzle map of the United States. In third grade, I cried in class when they showed us a video about Arlington National Cemetery that ended with a mont set to Lee Greenwood's God Bless the usa. In fourth grade, I went through a serious American flag phase. My school photo that year was me in an American flag sweater against an American flag backdrop, and I chose both of those things. A part of me still enjoys these boyhood passions today. I still coach the University of Vermont's Men's Ultimate Frisbee Team in my, I guess, spare time while in my day job with tango. I'm elbow deep every day in US Politics. But as I got older, those interests became a little more huge and complicated. With experience, I went from using athletic feats to push me to be the best version of myself as an athlete to reflecting on how these achievements can inspire me to be a better leader. My sense of patriotism became even more complicated. Your concept of a nation can become tangled up over time with your idea of governance and then confused further with how people you disagree with exalt ideas you don't share. For me, what America means and what the flag symbolizes became piled under layers and layers of complexity. I still love America. I still love the flag. But it's hard not to express that without being at least a little bit ironic. For example, the most recent picture I have of myself posing with an American flag is from 10 years ago and it was taken a photo shoot with my then puppy. And it was a little ironic to say the least. But still, this is a story about the uncomplicated, childish sincerity I feel about America and about sports and how every even numbered year I get licensed to express that sincere, boyish love I feel for both of those things without worrying if I'll come across as naive or ironic.