So, today is December 23, 2009. Mark your calenders, because the Olympic flame hype has reached Leamington! The streets will be lined with thousands of onlookers as they wait anxiously to see... someone dressed in all white jog by holding a glorified stick with a little fire on it...
Let's turn back the clock a little bit here... (insert wavy flashback sequence)
The last time the flame was in leamington was in the mid 80's. Back then, the Olympic flame was far more hardcore... let me explain. "the eternal flame" actually burned constantly, for years and years the fire never went out. It was a symbol for worldwide competition of the best athletes in the world. It united countries who would otherwise be at odds. It would have been an honour to be entrusted with carrying such an eternal symbol.
Ok, flashback to the present...
The "eternal flame" just like most other things in our generation is nothing more than a big publicity stunt. They choose a few important people from each town that get to carry it, then the fire is PUT OUT, and driven to the next destinaiton, where there are more camera's to catch the action.
I watch TSN every morning, and they always have a section on where the flame had been the previous day...you can track it online as well. They show clips of people carrying it, and a map with the towns it visited. "and we're all back there going...yeah fine, just get me where it says on the ticket."
They have this idea in Leamington...they'll have someone important have the flame on...wait for it... a tomato harvester, while the mayor drives it through town. REALLY!? What the heck does a tomato harvester have to do with the olympics? Or any sporting event for that matter?
And i've heard people talk about "all the tourist dollars that this will bring leamington!". Um...hate to break it to you pal, but the flame is here for like 45 minutes... and probably the only tourist dollars you're going to make is if one of the camera crew get a hackerin' for some 7/11 penuts.
I say we go back to the old school where the "eternal flame" never actually goes out, and it's actually RUN, not driven across the country by actual athletes a mile at a time. I bet most of our "important polititions" would be out of the running, because they can't actually run a mile straight.
Eternal flame, you've changed...you've changed for the worse.
-chuck out
No comments:
Post a Comment