Thursday, December 10, 2009

Who you should root for during the World Cup and Olympics...

With the World Cup and Olympics upon us I want to make one thing perfectly clear. If you live and or work in the U.S. you need to root for the U.S. I have noticed that a lot of my friends tend to root for countries of their ethnic heritage or their former homelands during international sporting competitions.

Well I have one message for you: Stop it.

My argument isn't nationalistic or xenophobic. Let me also say this. I am not asking people to not be proud of the heritage or their homeland. I'm just saying this, dance with the date you took to the prom. Rooting for another country while you live and work in America makes little sense to me. As a citizen, refugee, or immigrant the fact of the matter is you live here, you work here, your educated here. You get the best (and worst) that America has to offer. So come on, isn't the least you can do is to root for the U.S. when we play another country.

I am a good example. My grandparents are from Mexico and Nicaragua. I am latino. But I was born here. I root for this country. I can be proud of my heritage and respect the birthplace of my elders but the U.S. is my home.

The struggle might be harder for folks who were actually born in another country but migrated to the U.S. To them let me offer this analogy. Lets say your married. You have children with your spouse. But after many years together you fall out of the love you originally had. You divorce and you find a new spouse. You make a new home, maybe even start a new family with this new spouse. Now you can still love your old wife as the mother or father of your children. You can look fondly back t your relationship together. BUT what you cannot do is keep a pocket photograph of them in your wallet. You can't tell your new spouse, "man, you sure aren't as good of cook/lover as so and so." Doing so would make you inconsiderate, rude and a horrible spouse. But that is exactly what people do when they root against the U.S. in order to support a country they decided to no longer live in!!! How does this make any sense?

So, before you wave anyone else's flag. Dawn any other colors than red white and blue. Before you pull for anything but the star and stripes. Remember who you come home to every night. Be a team player.

And if you don't love it...leave it ;)


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