Olympics do not define who we are

Your e-mails hammered pretty hard at my disdain for Olympic swimming.

Some ripped me for the misconception that I don't respect what swimmer Michael Phelps has achieved. Some didn't appreciate the accurate conception that I don't appreciate the Olympics in general.

Heck, some even disliked my wisecrack at the expense of Hillary Clinton.

All of that is fine because a critic must expect criticism.

However, what I don't understand is the relation between Phelps' level of success and my level of patriotism.

T. Wunderlich: "How could you not support him and our country?" William Hurlbutt: "Every American we have seen or spoken to is most proud of Michael Phelps - You should be ashamed of yourself." Mary Ann Christianson: "Guess you're not a good American."

Us-against-them nationalism is one of my objections to the Olympics. I'd rather see captains choose up sides comprised of different nationalities working together toward a common goal.

If Phelps won a gold medal on a relay team with an Australian, Austrian and Argentine, would his swimming be any less noteworthy?

Anyway, Phelps makes me proud to be an American not because he sets records but because he appears to do so with class, dignity and humility.

Better that others view us as human than super humans who have to win everything for the sake of our self-esteem.

In the end, all this is just sports, and it isn't important to beat the rest of the world at sports. Personally, I don't care whether we win the Olympics, the Ryder Cup or the Little League World Series.

What, are we trying to prove something to others or to ourselves?

A recent Newsweek article quotes Xu Guogi's book "Olympic Dreams: China and Sports 1895-2008": "A nation that obsesses over gold medals is not a self-assured nation."

China is driven to elevate its status within the world community. In other words, it wants to get where America is.

Regardless of how we do in Beijing, wouldn't you still feel good that America has a food store on every corner and almost as many banks as taverns?

Seriously, we have our faults but also so much to be proud of in areas more important than the breaststroke and basketball.

Like, we send humanitarian aid to war-torn Georgia, to victims of natural disasters and even to needy enemies sometimes.

We're a diverse people coexisting well enough to have a mixed-race presidential candidate, a black woman as Secretary of State and minorities in other prominent positions.

We are free to say out loud that we don't agree with this or that government policy - and in print even that we don't find Olympic swimming entertaining.

That's worth a "U-S-A!" chant.

I would trade all the gold in China if we could figure out how to feed all our hungry, house all our homeless and provide health care for all our unhealthy.

What defines us, however, is that we don't debate whether we should but how we can.

That might be why immigrants come here. You think China will become the desired destination if it wins the gold rush?

Not likely.

America is the greatest nation in the world, and we don't have to prove it in a swimming pool.

mimrem@dailyherald.com