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The investments in Olympic sponsorships may have reached the limit of diminishing returns. For instance, I can't remember whether Kodak is the Official Film of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics or merely the Official One-use Camera. Is a Snickers bar the Official Snack, or was that for some other Olympics? Is there an Official Beer this year?
Millions of dollars have been spent to remind me of these distinctions, and now I feel guilty that I can't remember whether I'm chewing the Official Junk Food of the Summer Games or just some off-brand which may offer flavor and empty calories, but not the Olympian patina.
But Atlanta, the official host city this year, apparently has other problems, related to the Confederate flag.
In 1956, when the South was facing the integration of its public schools, the Georgia legislature changed the state flag and inserted the Stars and Bars -- one emblem of the Confederacy.
Given the timing, the revised flag was not a harmless expression of regional pride. It was a political statement, a way to tell black citizens what the white legislature thought of them.
Over the years, there were efforts to restore the Georgia flag to its pre-1956 configuration -- just the state shield on a field of blue. But these were always blocked by cornpone legislators who involved the Lost Cause, and spoke eloquently of how the Confederate flag was an emblem that many brave men died for and was thus sacred.
Much the same can be said of almost any flag, including the Nazi swastika or the Soviet hammer and sickle. Just because brave men die for bad causes does not convert vile ventures into noble crusades.
The Confederate flag no more stands for courage and gallantry than does any other flag ever carried into battle. What makes it distinctive is that it stands for slavery.
As far as I'm concerned, anybody who flies a Confederate flag should be sentenced to a life term of picking cotton in the Mississippi Delta with a lash applied to his back. That's what that flag really symbolizes, and if somebody really believes in the Old South, let him put his back where his mouth is.
Anyway, the Confederate flag is part of the Official Flag of the State of Georgia, and there are people -- people whose ancestors were slaves, people whose ancestors fought to rid the nation of slavery, people who just don't think slavery is a good idea -- who are offended by the sight of the Stars and Bars.
State flags don't fly at Olympic events, since those events concern nations, not their political subdivisions. But Atlanta authorities are worried that patrons will bring Georgia flags and wave them at events.
Many athletes would be offended, for good reason, but it's difficult to tell Americans that they can't wave their state flags when the Olympics are being held in their state.
The last I heard, the Atlanta authorities were going to try anyway. They want athletes from all nations to feel welcome in Atlanta, and, let's face it, a Confederate flag isn't going to make an athlete from Gabon or Ghana feel all that comfortable.
The Stars and Bars should offend all Americans. We fought the bloodiest war in our history -- more deaths than all our other wars put together -- to extinguish the Confederate flag and what it stood for: treason, betrayal, sedition, slavery, racism.
Unfortunately, the Civil War didn't succeed, despite its fearful cost. The history books may tell us that the Union won, but these days, the South runs the show.
The President is from Arkansas. The Speaker of the House hails from Georgia. The Senate Majority Leader is from Mississippi.
The latter two are Republicans, as is the South generally these days, and that's a cruel twist. The Republican Party was formed in the Midwest in 1854 to oppose the South and its pernicious influence on national politics.
And now the GOP marches to the beat of Dixie -- a conquest that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee could never have imagined in their wildest dreams.
The way things are going, with Bob Dole and Bill Clinton trying to outdo each other in supporting wool-hat legislation, from drug testing of most college students to a crime-victim rights amendment to the constitution, we'll probably see a Confederate Flag Desecration Amendment proposed this summer.
As desperate as both are for votes from the nether side of the Mason-Dixon line, the thing might even pass in time for the Stars and Bars to fly over Atlanta as the Official Flag of Unprincipled Candidates.
Abraham Lincoln might have meant well when he struggled
to keep the Union together. But I suspect that if he could
have foreseen the results, he'd have said good
riddance,
and turned his attention to other
matters.
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