I took the time to write to the International Olympic Committee asking the Olympic Committee to honour the memory of the eleven Israeli Olympic Team members who were murdered during the 1972 Olympics Games held at Munich by holding an appropriate silence of one minute during the 2012 Olympics Games Opening Ceremony in London.
I explained on these Blog pages and in my communication to the International Olympic Committee that holding a silence of one minute as a mark of remembrance:
is not a RELIGIOUS THING,
is not a NATIONALISTIC THING,
but is simply the RIGHT THING.
More so in that 2012 is the fortieth anniversary of the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. If we fail to remember them on the 40th Anniversary of their untimely and unnecessary deaths, then when will we remember them? We cannot hold a silence of one minute on the 50th Anniversary as there are no Olympic Games taking place in 2022.
It is a shocking fact that those who were murdered while engaging in the Olympic ideal at Munich in 1972; have never been afforded the basic gesture of a simple remembrance at the very event which after all was the catalyst for their traumatic deaths. The Israeli Olympic Team Members in 1972 chose to be Olympians, they did not choose to die.
I am not Jewish, but if I was, then I would be proud to be so. I am not associated with the State of Israel, but if I was, then I would be proud of that association. Especially given the murderous atrocities of ethnic cleansing that were vigorously indulged in during the Second World War against Jews. I am not an Olympian, and I will never be one, as I am not an athlete. But if I was an Olympian, then I would be ashamed that those who governed the event had failed to give my fellow Olympians a basic honour of remembrance for their ultimate sacrifice. Killed when they should have been enjoying their status as Olympians.
Shame on all of those that refuse to hold a silence of one minute as a mark of remembrance for the Israeli Olympic Team Members who died in 1972. The idea of Civilising Processes is often misunderstood. Some people believe that they are more special and others, and some societies believe that their society is civilised whereas other societies lack civilisation for some act or the other that they engage in. Some societies and by default groups within those societies; show their backwardness within the civilising process by those acts that they omit to engage in. It is never too late to change, but change only happens when the strength of feeling turns heavily against those that resist change, or new blood or opportunity washes away those that create a wall.
Question: is there truly an Olympic ideal, or has the Olympic Games become simply a money fest coupled with glorification and power craving of those that control the purse strings by choosing whom to pass on the Olympic torch every four years? If there is an 'Olympic ideal' then there can be no question that a silence of one minute as a mark of remembrance for those who died in Munich in 1972 must be held.
There can't be both, either there is an 'Olympic ideal', or there is not.
