The Student News Website of Francis Howell North High School.
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FHNtoday.com

The Student News Website of Francis Howell North High School.

FHNtoday.com

The Student News Website of Francis Howell North High School.
The Collector Store

FHNtoday.com

Countdown to 4th Quarter!
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The excitement is over

jess Summer is officially over, and I couldn’t be more excited. This is not excitement for things like turkey, family, or watching holiday movies (it might be a wonderful life, but it’s a terrible movie). This is excitement for the Olympics. I’m not looking forward to the arctic variety, I am excited that they’re over.

I am not fond of the Olympics. I never understood why I should cheer for the U.S. over anyone else. I don’t know anything about Olympic athletes. Why is an American gymnast better than a Chinese one? Just because they’re born in the same country as me?

I think the Chinese gymnasts are pretty fantastic, but that’s mostly because they schooled us while still being in elementary school. The Olympics feel like a distraction, and we really don’t need any of those. We’re at war on two fronts, and as I type this it appears that Venezuela has, for all intents and purposes, made a virtual declaration of war. The economy isn’t looking so hot, we’ve got an election coming up, and a new season of Gossip Girl has started. We’ve got enough distractions already.

And then we add in the chest-pounding of the Olympics, and suddenly we all have to care about the little girl who lip-synced the Chinese national anthem and Michael Phelps spending 87 hours a day swimming. In the days following Phelps’ record-smashing extravaganza, I heard a lot about his freaky, hairless, fish-like body; meanwhile, Russia and Georgia were still at conflict. While President Bush was hanging with women’s beach volleyball players, Russian troops were opening a second front.

It might be an ancient tradition, but I wouldn’t give more value to the Olympics than that. Olympic defenders say the games bring nations together by pitting them against each other in grueling, intently media scrutinized events once every four years.
We can do better than that.

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