Jerk of the week
And she came in third.
The path was clear for me to finish out the remaining years of my life without ever having had expended a thought about something called the hammer throw. Similarly, I’ve conditioned my brain to shut off when the subject of the Olympic Games is detected on my radar.
But my plans were dashed.
A 31-year-old hammer thrower named Gwen Berry acted out when the Star Spangled Banner was played as she stood on the podium, having won third place for her athletic feats.
She didn’t want to hear the song because she was “here to represent those ... who died due to systemic racism … That's why I'm here today.''
"My purpose and my mission is bigger than sports,'' Berry said.
Of course it is.
How could we expect her to throw her hammer and shut up?
Berry used the Gwen-the-hammer-thrower spotlight to promote Gwen-the-activist. While the two other ladies who finished ahead of her were considerate enough to their hosts to follow protocol, Berry was all too eager to steal their moment right away from them for her own side hustle.
And so, while Price and Andersen stood still on the podium with their hands over the hearts and stared straight ahead at the American and Oregon flags, Berry fidgeted and paced on the third step. Then she turned away and finally grabbed her T-shirt.
“The anthem doesn't speak for me. It never has,'' declared Berry, in what is one of the least bold and gutsy statements a young person could possibly make in 2021.
If your instinct is to feel that Berry should be tossed from the team as she has no intention of representing America in a positive way and that her true passions lay in cravenness and selfishness, your instincts are spot-on.
"What I need to do is speak for my community, to represent my community and to help my community. Because that's more important than sports.''
Her idealism will fall short of refusing to cash checks from big, American companies or to accept American greenbacks for her sports activities in the name of eschewing American symbols, one assumes.
And when she acts like a selfish jerk in Tokyo, she will disgrace her community and embarrass her country because the rest of the world knows real oppression and struggle and this spoiled American brat’s song and dance will send one message:
Gwen Berry has already won the gold medal for pure and absolute privilege.
You're right on again Tom. She'll cash a check from any systemic racist corporate group out there, while at the same time claiming that the same system is keeping her down. No one has ever keep this woman down and that may be one of the problems. Sometimes life is too easy for these so-called activists.