From The Washington Times via Garrulitas:
American athletes have been warned not to wave the U.S. flag during their medal celebrations at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens, for fear of provoking crowd hostility and harming the country's already-battered public image.
The spectacle of victorious athletes grabbing a national flag and parading it around the stadium is a familiar part of international sporting competition, but U.S. Olympic officials have ordered their 550-strong team to exercise restraint and avoid any jingoistic behavior.
The plan is part of a charm offensive aimed at repairing the country's international reputation after the deepening crisis in Iraq and damaging revelations of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Charm offensive? Who's bright idea is that? I don't find it charming at all. In fact, I'm down-right offended.
What happened at Abu Ghraib is not an indictment of all Americans. The vast majority of us don't act that way. We are a proud, strong and brave nation responsible for a lot of good around the world. Our citizens have every right to be proud of where they're from, just as citizens of other countries have a right to be proud of where they're from.
Why are Americans expected to be so self-effacing? Why is there so much self-hate in America today? If you're from America you should be proud of your citizenship. You should be proud of the freedoms our ancestors have fought to win and our soldiers are fighting to keep in place today. We should never, ever be ashamed of being patriotic.
I hope the atheletes ignore this warning. I hope they all were our colors on their uniforms proudly and are free to display their patriotism and love-of-country during their victories.
If you agree with me, let the USOC know about it.
Update:
These are the people we're trying to appease when we stop our atheletes from showing their patriotism.