TUPATALK: Lessons from upcoming 50th Anniversary of the Munich massacre

In less than seven weeks, the 50th Anniversary of the Munich massacre will pass.

The horrific took place at the 1972 Summer Olympics in West Germany.

Starting on Sept. 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists kidnapped several members of the Israeli Olympic delegation. By the time the situation concluded, 11 Israelis (six coaches and five athletes) had been killed, along with one West German police officer and five of the eight terrorists, which called themselves Black September.

This heart-breaking incident confirmed anew that when it comes to the sanctity of sports vs. the sanctimony of political expediency and brutality, sports are always going to lose.

The ideal of sports competition encompasses honor, trust, a fair playing field, suspending philosophical differences in favor of focused athletic competition and a temporary respite of peace from the passions and conflicts that exist the rest of the time.

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Too often has the objective realm of sports been violated by the violence of opportunism or the visceral reaction to it.

One example is the U.S. decision by President Carter to pull out of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics as a result of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. At least part of the reasoning focused on punishing Russia by the loss of U.S. dollars and tourists.

Four years later, the Soviets boycotted the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

For 24 years (1964-88), South African athletes were banned from Olympic competition, due to that government’s apartheid policy.

Israeli athletes have been banned during the years from some competitions.

Hitler’s Nazi Germany banned German Jews, or those with Jewish parents, from competitions, including the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics.

Earlier in 2022, the International Olympic Committee banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from some international sports competitions.

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Now, whether one agrees or disagrees with some, or all, of the examples listed above, it all comes back to the fundamental question: What role should politics play in how athletic competitions are conducted?

I believe the answer is not in the naive viewpoint that all athletes should participate because doing so might make things instantly better and that hostility might transform automatically into a live-and-let-live mindset.

I think a conscious, courageous decision has to be made, whether athletes of all nations, regardless of their government’s policies or actions will be allowed to participate — while completely leaving politics outside the fence — or not.

I honestly don’t know the right answer.

On an emotional level, I can understand the desire to punish maverick or brutal nations by excluding their athletes from competition and thus negating a potential platform for those nations.

As a sportsman and optimist, I can understand the idea of separating peaceful sports competition completely from political differences and allowing all athletes to participate.

The point of the latter is not so much the competition is going to change much, at least not in the short-term, but it’s still going to create some bridges of understanding and even friendship that rise above the crashing, raging river of political or cultural acrimony.

I do believe patriotism — or the strong feelings of individuals wanting to honor their nation — is a good thing, because it celebrates both the diversity of the world's nations and yet emphasizes the brotherhood or sisterhood athletic competition can encourage.

To get back to the 1972 Olympics, I remained absolutely horrified about that happened — much more so because it violated the values the Olympic competition is supposed to represent.

In my re-reading of the “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” (William L. Shirer) — a definitive work how Hitler’s lies and hatred inspired the ascendancy of Germany as a destructive military power and how it came crashing down — I am overwhelmingly saddened again by how racial and cultural hatred pollutes the soul and mind of many individuals and how they ravage truth.

I really can’t comprehend it in my mind. My mom and dad — and my relatives — taught me all people are the same regardless of genetic or ancestral differences. They — especially my mom — influenced my sister and I to evaluate all people by the quality of their hearts and the span of their intentions, as much as we could ascertain.

To me, Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that “all mean are created equal,” is more than just a political soundbite. It is the very essence of true peace — whether on a large or individual scale — and of freedom, symbiotic serendipity, fair justice, individual and collective progress, individual and collective prosperity and the north star that guides humanity to true tranquility.

My mind cannot comprehend how the Black September members could slaughter innocent, worthwhile people who were just trying to live their lives the best they could — anymore than I can understand how the terrorists of 9-11 could knowingly cause the death and destruction of so many thousands of people, and the subsequent emotional and financial hardships on tens of thousands of their loved ones and friends.

Hate is always unreasonable and destructive — both to those who possess it and to its victims. But, hate without surface provocation, based on social/economic status, race, culture, or perception, is doubly odious. In my opinion, the glorification of hate and violence needs to go away from our music, our TV programming, our movies, our literature, our videos and other media offerings.

Fair sports competition needs to remain a haven from the storms of conflict raging around and an example of how the world could be.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TUPATALK: 50th Anniversary of the Munich massacre lessons