Our US correspondent JZ enjoys a good game, but have things gone awry when sport is bigger than the biggest environmental disaster in US history?
It was a good sports week in Chicago. Our hockey team, the un-PC-named Blackhawks (complete with stereotypical Native American imagery), won the Stanley Cup, the top prize in the world’s largest hockey league.
It’s been 59 years since they won their last Stanley Cup – and five years since a Chicago sports team has won any championship.
Friday, the Magnificent Mile was packed with fans celebrating their victory as jumbotrons showed speeches from the toothless team members and the super-rich owner. Confetti filled the streets giving plenty of work for the streets & sanitation guys who were working overtime (as were Chicago’s finest).
At the same time, just steps away in Millenneum Park, a small group of activists staged a flash mob at the BP bridge. That’s right. The BP bridge. Over the many years of his reign, our fine Irish-American mayor Richard M Daley auctioned off the naming rights for public space downtown to corporations.
The fantastic mischief makers, the Yes Men, sent out a message a few days ago to assemble at the BP bridge at 12pm dressed in black or carrying a black umbrella. At exactly 12:11pm (we were asked to sync our clocks), whistles would cue our moment to open the black umbrellas and create a visual oil slick.
Relegated
Of course the bridge was closed by park police (although it wasn’t clear if it was to block us or manage the hockey rally foot traffic) so we were relegated to the foot of the bridge. Not that we would’ve filled the bridge with the amount of people who showed up.
And there’s my frustration. Why is sports able to attract an estimated two million people for a rally, many of whom got there in their giant, BP-petrol belching SUVs from the suburbs, and a protest against one of America’s worst environmental disasters ever gets only 50 people?
I couldn’t help but think about all the women and girls who are being raped, infected with AIDS and kept as prisoners just so they can service the huge influx of soccer fans.
I like a few sports. You might even see me at a Cubs game once in a while. But sport teams have turned into rich boy toys. Got money left over from your oligarchy? Buy a soccer team.
As the World Cup kicked off this week, I couldn’t help but think about all the women and girls who are being raped, infected with AIDS and kept as prisoners just so they can service the huge influx of soccer fans. I ask anyone who is watching the World Cup. Is that worth it?
Years ago, I remember marching through the same streets of Chicago where this week’s hockey rally was held – protesting the first Iraq Invasion. It didn’t stop it. Nor did the subsequent protests against the second invasion.
But as the confetti fell this Friday on Michigan Avenue, I imagined the day when the streets of downtown Chicago were used to welcome home our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan after Obama fulfilled his campaign promise and ended the wars.
We wouldn’t even need to celebrate a victory. Like the World Cup match between the US and England, a 1-1 draw would suffice.
JZ
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