Kenyan Runners: Not Wanted Here
Last week I'd spotted a story of a Kenyan who'd changed his citizenship and written at length about how America is adept at importing talent and hence being better than anyone else. This weekend I noticed a story from the local paper, the Argus Leader, covering local unhappiness1 over "foreign" tennis stars that have recently come to dominate the high school scene. As one coach put it:
"There are a lot of seniors who are looking at their only chance to win a state title, and it's one thing to lose to someone from your own state, but losing this way almost seems like an asterisk situation to me."
I'm still adjusting to this attitude which puts a different definition on being best. It reminds me of a birthday party I attended in second or third grade where the father of the birthday girl watched as we played musical chairs, stopping and starting the music to allow his daughters to "win" the game. Perhaps the most depressing aspect of it is that by opening to challenges from the outside, people are prepared for a real world in which sports, economic opportunity, and life are not a hand out, entitlement, or closed competition.
This coach may be surprised to realize that most people see rigged competitions as the ones which need asterisks, not the ones in which anyone can compete.
In the meantime, maybe the foreigners can go to California.
1Of course there must be some locals who agree with me, otherwise these students wouldn't be here.
6:59:47 PM 
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