USA! USA! USA!
I was very excited last weekend when an American won the New York City Marathon for the first time since 1982. Meb Keflezighi finished in 2:09:15, beating the second-place finisher (from Kenya), by forty-five seconds. Keflezighi was wearing a shirt with “USA” written in large letters across the front.
Apparently, though, nobody is ever happy about anything anymore, because complaints about Keflezighi’s victory are apparently being made by some in the running world. “He’s not really American, so don’t think that this means Americans are suddenly better than Africans when it comes to marathons”, goes the absurd argument. Here’s the thing: What makes America America is that people in this country come from everywhere, and have since the very beginning. Keflezighi was born in Eritrea, but has lived in the USA since he was a child. He is an American citizen, not by accident of birth, but because he wanted to be. I am proud that an American won the New York City Marathon.
Filed under: Current Events, Sports on November 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »