Because You Never Asked

(This essay was written around 1994)

     In all sincerity, I'm not up for writing this essay. In much the same way the Gulf War alienated me from my culture, so too has this fetid, degrading, Tonya-Nancy episode.

     It's upset me.

     But the Olympics are over and the drama has been played out. I'd feel irresponsible as a "dubious philosophical patterer" if I did not see this through to its natural conclusion.

     Much to my amazement and dismay, they let Tonya compete, but the negative energy created by her actions made her participation a fiasco and not a vindication. There is a thing called "Karma" rolling around in this universe, and hers came back to slap her down. Perhaps in the future she'll be able to reassess her foolishness and do something about it (yeah, sure).

     When I spoke of alienation, it originally appeared because nobody had the guts to tell Tonya to go friggin' skate on a different pond. As the soap opera ran its course, this alienation was to come from a different source, namely, the way in which we were made to perceive Nancy Kerrigan.

     The media correctly cast Tonya as the witch in this story, but their canonization of St. Nancy is way out of line. Sure, she's not to blame for all this, nor should she be considered a wicked person. Yet there is something strangely lacking in her behavior, something that has kept her from rising to the occasion. Except for her brilliance as an athlete, she comes across as a shallow person, lacking any true character or conviction. In much the same way the insatiable quest for wealth, fame and glory perverted Tonya Harding's outlook, so it is with Nancy as well.

     Here's a girl who was brutally attacked by a paid thug with a heavy metal object . Yo! Nancy! Don't you remember that! Has your tunnel vision quest for the gold, the money, the fame, relegated all that to some dust covered attic of your memory? Shouldn't you have said something? Perhaps a few words protesting the participation of the person who inspired such a savage act? I bet you'd have raised some hell if you hadn't been able to skate.

     Aww, what the hell, Reebok, Letterman, Disney. Why make waves?

     I'm sorry; Nancy Kerrigan is no heroic person.

     True champions are people with presence, "persona", strength of character. Figures like Michael Jordan, Boris Becker, Carl Lewis, and the champion of all champions, Muhammad Ali, come to mind. Whether you loved or hated Ali, when it comes to integrity, nothing will ever top the self-proclaimed "greatest" of them all (who else could possibly self proclaim such a thing?). Here's a man who gave up the richest prize in the world of sport, the Heavyweight Championship of the World, because he believed in something. Yo! Nancy! He went to jail because he believed in something. Yo! Nan . oh forget it.

     There is a great athlete in Kerrigan's sport that I consider a person of championship character --- the German skater Katarina Witt. Aside from her obvious athletic talent, there is something about her that is cause for attention. Her interviews in English, her second language, are articulate and meaningful, in stark contrast to Kerrigan, who can't put ten words together without retreating behind a shrug and a shit-eating grin. I can't imagine Katarina Witt accepting a place on the same team, posing for group pictures, or sharing the same practice ice with someone who closely collaborated with people who tried to physically maim her. I think she has too much character for that. She'd have made an issue of it.

     The sad truth is this: St. Nancy would be nothing without that wicked witch of the west, Tonya Harding. Tonya made Nancy, Nancy made Tonya, they were made for each other.