Last night Connie and I had the opportunity to attend the opening ceremonies of the Ohio Special Olympics as guests of speaker and songwriter Eric Gnezda who wrote the Special Olympics anthem "Everybody Wins". The event is being hosted this weekend at the Jesse Owens Track and Field Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University.
Now, truthfully, (ever Moi?) I don’t particularly like the term "special" whether it’s used for education, sports, or an advertising pitch for laundry detergent, and I long for the day when people who happen to be disabled are allowed their natural differences without sentimentality. We need to go deeper with our descriptions of disabled people. I can’t imagine an Ohio State football player doing what some of the Special Olympics athletes can do. I mean, imagine that football player being asked to wear restraints and bags of bird shot around his ankles while running. There has to be a better word than "special"? How about "extra stamina" just for starters?
But I digress.
If you need to be reminded why America is a great country think about this:
We sat last night in a stadium named for an African-American athlete (and a "Buckeye") who showed up Hitler at the ’36 Olympics. And the Olympic flame was carried across Ohio by relay teams of police officers and those same officers brought the torch into the ceremonies with a full motorcycle and helicopter escort. Those officers then handed the flame to the disabled athletes who in turn lit the cauldron.
Now that’s America.
Whenever you are weighed down by the daily news and your optimism index is drained, just remember that in the USA our police forces celebrate the physically challenged because they are truly our neighbors and friends.
I know we have lots of problems.
But as Senator Clinton might say, "when we think like a village, everybody wins."
I got all choked up last night.
Take that Hitler!
Thank you Eric for bringing us along.
Even my guide dog Vidal got a little choked up. Perhaps in his case this had to do with the fact that I wouldn’t let him eat popcorn under the stadium seats?
S.K.
P.S. Brian has posted a couple of great photos at Columbuser.com
Planet of the Blind 
It sounds great. I love that quote from Sen. Clinton.
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