Because You Never Asked

(This essay was written around 1994.)

     Having ended the previous essay with a postscript mentioning the outrageous attack on Nancy Kerrigan (see essay "Mickey Mantle"), I had intended to leave it at that. But the debate as to Tonya Harding's Olympic status continues to rage, with every species of media buzzard feeding gluttonously at its carcass. Athletes, lawyers, journalists, bureaucrats, shrinks and other assorted swamis of one stripe or another, have beaten the question to a slimy pulp. What both disgusts and amazes me is that there is any debate at all. How can anyone believe Tonya Harding should represent any country in the Olympics?

     When I see all these respected pundits on TV having a hard time reaching this conclusion, I have to ask if the pessimism already expressed in this mass of dubious philosophical patter falls short of the mark. It also makes me wonder if I'm the last guy in the joint with a functioning brain.

     As I write this essay, there can no longer be any doubt that the attack on Kerrigan was a conspiratorial plot hatched by the Harding camp in an effort to do away with an important rival. I mention this not to enlighten anyone, but to give more relevance to what I'm about to say.

     The fundamental problem with the debate defining Harding's right to compete is the way in which the question has been formed. All the media scavengers are basing their opinions on Harding's guilt or innocence with regard to the crime in question, such guilt being denied by Harding (yeah, sure). In other words, until she has received her right to due process, she is presumed innocent.

     I agree. But this is not how the issue should be framed regarding her Olympic participation. This is only relevant with regard to her criminal status within our society. Due process has nothing to do with athletic participation. There is no constitutional right to compete in the Olympics. A person does not formally have to be considered a criminal before something about them might be deemed reprehensible. If Tonya Harding were a legally confessed Nazi brandishing swastikas and verbally showing her contempt for "kikes" and "niggers", would the Olympic committee let her compete? Pete Rose has become a baseball leper because he legally bet on sporting events.

     Even if we give Harding every benefit of the doubt and decide she knew nothing and authorized nothing (yeah, sure), a brutal, BARBARIC act was carried out by her entourage. (Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to consider, just for a moment, what it is like to be struck in the shins by a strong man with an iron pipe.) These are the people she most relied upon. She was the focus, the reason for this group's existence. Don't these people reflect upon her? Doesn't she have to take some responsibility for their actions, if not criminally, at least morally?

     I don't think anyone involved with the United States figure skating team should consider skating on the same team with Tonya Harding, and least of all Nancy Kerrigan. My God! . how appalling an act has to be committed before punishment is swift and routine? If for some reason the American idea of "justice" denies the governing body responsible for such discipline the right to bar Harding from the team, I, as hypothetical head of such body, would resign, hopefully along with anyone else who might have such disciplinary functions. Go get yourself another committee. We quit!

     I don't consider the conclusions just expressed to be the flight of some naïve, utopian dreamer. Quite the contrary, these feelings are based upon the most obvious form of basic decency. Why is there any debate at all here?

     There is a lot of bitching going on in the United States these days. Many theories are being floated as to what is ailing the nation: family breakdown, not enough religion, shoddy morality, poor education, coddling criminals, welfare deadbeats, on and on . bullshit. If there is one thing that never comes under scrutiny, that nobody ever questions, it is our triumphant economic system and what it might be doing to us emotionally. Could the attitude needed to succeed in this hyper-competitive environment have perverted an attractive young girl with a remarkable talent in the most genteel of sports to such an extent, that she collaborated in smashing another girl's shinbones to splintered shards? Might such emotional perversion make it easier for the rest of us to accept it?

     Nike, Reebok, gold and glory .

     In the end, my guess is they won't let Harding skate. But it is already too late; too much talk, too much debate, too much crap over something that should have been easy. The fact that this obvious decision is being drawn out and complicated in the name of some grandiose concept of judicial fair play, casts a dubious light on our whole idea of "justice". Might this "Kafkian" judicial apparatus now be viewed as a smokescreen for something far less noble than its billing? Why so much insecure posturing? Throw her off the team and be done with it. There is nothing to explain.

     The fact that Tonya Harding could still compete is an indication of something gone very awry.

     Relevant Material: "This ratifies the affirmation of Erich Fromm saying that in order to have a healthy economy we have produced millions of sick people." From the book "Un Mundo que Agoniza" (A World in Agony), by the Spaniard, Miguel Delibes.