The surge of patriotism hit me when I was, of all places, on the treadmill.
I was getting the exercise that’s considered “part of the treatment” for diabetes. No, I couldn’t get the disease for which the treatment is regular trips to the Bahamas. I have the stealth disease of diabetes, which crept up on me in the early 1990s.
Anyway, I was watching the Olympics as I walked the mandatory four miles per hour recommended for diabetics. (Whoever came up with that recommendation clearly has never walked four miles an hour on anything.) Michael Phelps was trying to win the second of his eight gold medals as part of America’s 4X100 relay team.
Jason Lezak was behind France’s Alain Bernard during the final 50 meters. I found myself walking four miles an hour and shouting at the television screen.
“Run that man down! Run him down!” Those impertinent, mealy-mouthed, trash-talking Frenchies were trying to ruin Mikey’s chance at winning eight gold medals, and I wasn’t having it.
I let out a war whoop when Lezak touched the wall before Bernard. My two-week-long display of unabashed, shameless patriotism — it happens every four years around this time — was on.
But the American victory in the 4X100 wasn’t the patriotic moment that thrilled me the most. That came earlier this week, and the god of irony saw to it that the son of illegal immigrants provided it for me.
Out of seven male freestylers, seven Greco-Roman grapplers and four female freestylers, America won only one gold medal. It went to 121-pounder Henry Cejudo, who also became the youngest American to win a wrestling gold medal at age 21 and might be the first Hispanic-American to do it, although I’d probably have to do some checking on that.
The guys doing the commentary for the freestyle wrestling competition made a big deal about Cejudo being the first American to win his weight class since 1904. But according to Mike Chapman’s “Encyclopedia of American Wrestling,” there was no 121-pound weight class in 1904. The weight class was 125 pounds and was indeed won by an American. Americans also won at 119 pounds in 1908 and 1920, at 123 pounds in 1932 and at 125.5 pounds in 1960.
One thing fans of amateur wrestling learn quickly is that officials who run the sport, in America and abroad, love to change weight classes and change them often.
I didn’t let the gaffe by the commentators rain on my patriotism parade. I’ll never forget the sight of Cejudo draping himself in the American flag and running around the arena, or of Cejudo on the medal stand, with tears in his eyes and his hand over his heart as our national anthem played.
One of Cejudo’s brothers also had tears in his eyes and his hand over his heart in what, for me, was the most poignant scene of the 2008 Olympics.
Commentators talked frequently of how Cejudo’s parents entered the country illegally and about how his mother struggled to raise six children, moving them from Los Angeles and then New Mexico before finally settling down in Arizona. Cejudo’s story didn’t change my mind about illegal immigration — it’s still illegal and needs to be stopped — but it did remind me once again of the kind of immigrants America needs, and the ones we don’t need.
We definitely do NOT need the ones like those who participated in rallies a couple of years back demanding their “rights.” Some of those people entered this country illegally and have no “rights” to demand. Their goal is not to become proud citizens of America but to enroll in one of the country’s growing list of victim groups.
Hell, we’ve got enough homegrown victim groups as it is. We don’t need to import any. But the country might be a darned sight better off if we deported some of the native-born whiners we have.
We DO need more immigrants like the Cejudos: hard-working, patriotic and proud to be American immigrants. If there are any more folks like the Cejudos south of the border, they can come on in.
We’ll work out their legal status later.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Maryland and Baltimore for more than 15 years. Look for his columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at [email protected].
