But for How Long

[flybye023]

So in this article an Israeli widow is complaining that the IOC did not have a moment of silence for the Munich killings at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

I don't have an opinion one way or another and I certainly sympathize with her but my main question is: How long? Yes, it's still in some peoples' memories but it's also been 40 years. Would 50 years be long enough? A hundred years from now will it be an olympic tradition?

I guess I think it would still be a nice gesture but I also don't think it is disrespectful not to.

[Nekojin]

So in this article an Israeli widow is complaining that the IOC did not have a moment of silence for the Munich killings at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

I don't have an opinion one way or another and I certainly sympathize with her but my main question is: How long? Yes, it's still in some peoples' memories but it's also been 40 years. Would 50 years be long enough? A hundred years from now will it be an olympic tradition?

I guess I think it would still be a nice gesture but I also don't think it is disrespectful not to.

I pretty much agree with you; doing the gesture is a nice touch, not doing it isn't actually a big deal.

The same thing applies to any disaster. Do we want to be "memorializing" 9/11 for the next century? How about Hurricane Katrina? Columbine?

Those that choose to grieve and make overt shows of remembrance are well within their rights to do so. They're treading on others' rights when they demand that EVERYONE give the same display as they do. Not everyone is impacted the same way; not everyone is going to want to carry that baggage.

[Racket_Man]

Well there is still a big tado about December 7th here in the US. and that was 70 years ago.

9/11 has its own crappy meaning for me.

[wolfie]

From what I saw in the papers, the refusal was because the IOC didn't want to politicize the games. On the other hand, why not generalize it to all athletes who died at the Olympics? After all, the Israeli athletes weren't the only ones - as an example, in Vancouver (2010), a bobsledder went off-track on a curve during practice and splatted against a pole. By making it a general tribute, it would de-politicize it.

Start with a reminder about the original Marathon (courier runs back to home city to give news about the battle, says "Rejoice, we conquer!", and drops dead), then show (in chronological order) a picture of each athlete, with their name, country, sport, year and city of the Olympics they died at) while someone recites the poem "To an athlete dying young".

[TheHuckster]

From what I saw in the papers, the refusal was because the IOC didn't want to politicize the games. On the other hand, why not generalize it to all athletes who died at the Olympics? After all, the Israeli athletes weren't the only ones - as an example, in Vancouver (2010), a bobsledder went off-track on a curve during practice and splatted against a pole. By making it a general tribute, it would de-politicize it.

I would be all for that, although I find it sad that paying tribute to any particular tragic or solemn event is seen as political.

[protege]

Well there is still a big tado about December 7th here in the US. and that was 70 years ago.

Some of that is because it changed our world forever. The attack on 12/7/41 was such a surprise. We wanted to stay out of the war--yet found ourselves in it. No longer was the Pacific a "buffer zone" against such attacks. That led to total destruction of two Japanese cities, unwrapping the nuclear age Cold War, etc. Not to mention, even *now* there's still some anti-Japanese sentiment in this country...

9/11 has its own crappy meaning for me.

Me too. I knew people who were killed on that day

Like 1941, 2001 had its own events--a surprise attack, two wars, hatred stirring up again (this time against Muslims, and anyone who resembled Muslims), fear, paranoia, etc.

[Racket_Man]

Me too. I knew people who were killed on that day

.

The company I worked for at the time was considering taking on a client that was in one of the World Trade Center towers. Had this started forward I would have been there during the attack doing a preliminary client workup, checking/cataloguing equipment, etc.

[SongsOfDragons]

The Opening Ceremony had a short moment that memorialised those who lost their lives during 7/7, which happened the day after we got the Olympics. It was really nice to see it, and I teared up a bit.

NBC didn't think it mattered to Americans and put in some interview over that chunk instead.

As to the Munich Massacre, I had to look it up and read about it some years ago as I wasn't around when it happened. XD It's intruiging that they didn't include a mention of it but I can understand what they mean...if we go around having to memorialise *everything* that happened at every big event, we won't have any room for awesome music and sport and fun things and such.

[AdminAssistant]

NBC's coverage of the Olympics was just AWFUL. Why was Ryan Seacrest even there? I mean, really?

[crashhelmet]

I'd have no problem with doing some sort of tribute to it on particular anniversaries. Every 10th might be good, or every 20th considering that it was the Summer Olympics and we don't have them in increments of 10. With this being the 40th, it would've been a respectful gesture as opposed to the 44th or the 36th.

[Hyena Dandy]

I think that the point isn't to get people to memorialize it EVERY time. From what I've been told, it hasn't even been memorialized once.

But that's what I've been told. I've been wrong before.