CHEERING FOR CANADA Confessions of a sympatheti C patriot

s hould i be worried about my patriotism?

Watching the Winter olympics in Vancouver last month, i realized something was happening that caused me pause. i found myself quietly cheering for the home team Canadians in the gold medal hockey game. there, i said it.

my son understood my sentiment, especially since i wanted Dallas stars’ star and Canadian olympian Brendan morrow to be in good spirits when he resumed playing for the home team. he will be. the Canadian team won the gold in an overtime thriller against the upstart United states team.

We had our “ miracle on ice” in the 1980 Lake p lacid games against the russians. We were amateurs; they were professionals in any honest sense of the word. our kids beat their men. freedom-loving a mericans defeated the Communist s oviets. the Cold War would end before the close of the decade, but the victory at the rink in upstate new york that night might have been the icebreaker.

now the thaw i feel in my cold competitive heart signals something else. We used to cheer for a merica against i ron Curtain countries. those manly-looking, testosterone-aided east German swimmers chilled our sympathies. those biased romanian figure-skating judges stole medals from our deserving youths. a nd those red Chinese were making it clear that if they put their minds to it, they could produce champions as surely as cheap goods.

But i found myself sympathizing with the russians for their poor achievements at these games. ( still, the russian skater didn’t outperform the a merican gold medalist just because he could do a quadruple jump. he was a poor sport.) i was happy for the Belarus aerial skier who won the gold, and for the a merican who risked a medal by doing his most difficult signature hurricane aerial maneuver and landed the silver. Good for both of them. i wanted to see China show well in winter games, as they have in summer games. the competition will be better with them as a real threat.

But just to show it’s not about secret socialism in my heart, i was thrilled that little norway i don’t apologize for loving my own son and daughters more than yours, but that doesn’t excuse me for failing to see yours as valuable to you as mine are to me. they aren’t less than mine because they are yours. a nd a merica isn’t better because it is my country than Ghana is if it is yours. a ll people of faith are taught some version of the biblical command “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” s omehow that suggests that true patriots learn to love neighboring countries while proudly waving their own flags. national zeal needn’t fly in the face of another’s flag being raised on the highest podium.

(only 5 million people) dominated the alpine events in a way fitting for the country that gave us alpine sports. ( okay, so i have norwegian heritage on my mother’s side, and norway is a highly socialized democracy.) a s for our neighbors to the north, Canada hosted the games and delivered a great showing in the sports that matter most to them. Good for them.

G. K. Chesterton, that witty British journalist of yesteryear, said of patriotism that it’s the right impulse to love most that which you are closest to. he argued that those “cosmopolitans”, who disdain nationalists for being nativists, really love mankind more than men, as some might love motherhood more than their own mothers. there’s a strange coldness, he thought, about those who cannot celebrate their own country in favor of vaguely honoring all countries.

But can you celebrate your own country and still can be happy for those who celebrate their own?

We may never learn the words to the Belarus national anthem, but we can know the feeling in the heart of those who sing it — and maybe we can even learn to hum along with them.

The v ictim: a drian r ios

The c rime: a uto theft date: Wednesday, feb. 3

Time: 7:15 a.m.

Location: 11000 block of Quail r un

The van Was T here, and T hen i T Was gone.

Adrian rios is a local contractor a hard-working man with a wife and 6-yearold son. The economy has been tough on the construction and contracting business lately. He uses a van as his work vehicle. rios usually keeps the vehicle in a storage facility, but on Feb. 2 he parked it in front of his Highland Meadows home after work.

“it’s for my work,” he says of the 1998 Ford van. “i install hardwood floors. Business is kind of slow.” rios was getting ready for work around 7 a.m. that morning. He looked outside and saw his van still in front of his home. When he headed out for work only minutes later, his work van was gone.

“it had been outside my home on the street,” he says. “They stole it about 7:15. They broke one of the locks on the driver’s side and broke the ignition. i lost a couple of table saws, air compressors and my toolbox with all my tools.”

This is not the first time rios has been victimized. Someone broke into his van last year, too. “last time they just took the tools. This time they took the van and the tools,” he says with a chuckle.

Fortunately, police were able to recover his van, but his tools were gone. rios estimates the lost tools and repairing the van will cost him more than $1,500. Trying to look on the bright side, however, he notes: “At least i got my van back.”

Senior Cpl. Geoff pettay of the Northeast patrol Division says it is important to follow the “lock, take and hide” instructions from police, as well as park in well-lit areas. Simply removing objects from a vehicle, in this case the tools, could cause a thief to look elsewhere.

“The tools should be brought inside and secured if possible. All thieves look for is something easy to take. in this case, they took the whole van to get the property. it only takes that one time when you let your guard down to become a victim.”

—SEAN CHAFFIN

Community

The Bishop Lynch Brigade’s third annual Spring Market is May 1 from 9-5 p.m. at Bishop Lynch, 9750 Ferguson Road. For information on renting a booth, email info@bishoplynchbrigade.org.

The Bryan adams high schooL classes of 1959 and ’60 are planning a reunion for Oct. 8-9. They are missing contact information for about 50 graduates. Contact Penny Dearing Lewis at 214.348.0126 with graduate information.

The WhiTe rock repuBLican Women’s cLuB meets at Highland Park Cafeteria, 300 Casa Linda Plaza, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 15. Members and guests are welcome. For questions, call 214.367.8298.

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W as a BL e T o evade po L ice B efore

T heir spike s T rips def L a T ed T he T ires of his f ord e xp L orer

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Lake highL ands presBy Terian church, 8525 Audelia Road, is now accepting registrations for its summer arts camp, “Captain Noah and the One and Only Zoo Cruise for Twos”. The camp runs July 19-23 from 8:45 a.m.-noon. Campers will create a musical production to be performed July 23 at 7 p.m. Registration is $50. More information is available at lhpres.org.

Education

daLL as LuTheran schooL recently announced that it made Stephen Robbins its varsity football coach. Robbins played at Concordia University in Seward, Neb., and then became an assistant coach there. He also has coached at Tolleson Union High School in Tolleson, Ariz. Robbins has been assistant head football coach, defensive coordinator, head track and field coach, art department chair, and director of recruitment at Dallas Lutheran since 2006.

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