I am watching television as I write this — the Parade of Nations at the Olympic opening ceremonies in London.
Greece led the procession, but women’s triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou wasn’t among the athletes following her nation’s banner.
You know who she is, don’t you? The athlete that the Greek Olympic Mission kicked off the team for a tweet that smacked of racism?
When West Nile virus recently appeared in Athens, she posted the following to her Twitter account: “With so many Africans in Greece ... the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!!!”
Greek Olympic officials deemed her words mocking of African immigrants and called her statement “contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement.”
Youth and wisdom rarely tangle in the same brain. It usually takes longer than Papachristou’s 23 years to be able to put oneself in another’s shoes, to understand that heedless words can hurt like stones.
Suffering the consequences of our behavior sows the seeds of wisdom. Some say she got what she deserved. Maybe so.
But wait a minute. Rodney King was barely 27 when he uttered the famous words, “Can we all get along?”
You remember who he is, don’t you?
The late African-American man whose brutal beating by Los Angeles police led to the 1992 riots that killed over 60 in that city?
When Rodney King pleaded for calm amid the riots with those commonplace words, it wasn’t his profundity that transfixed us.
It was his spirit.
King’s willingness to look injustice in the eye, and forgive, earned him a place in human history.
Just so, the African immigrants in Greece are the only people with a legitimate right to try to restore the dreams of an athlete who has trained long and sacrificed much to represent her country before the world.
Though she has apologized profusely, she might not merit their mercy.
But wouldn’t that make their forgiveness all the more humbling for her — and instructive for the rest of us?
They hold in their hearts an answer to Rodney King’s question, “Can we all get along?”
A “yes” would not only affirm “the values and ideas of the Olympic movement,” it would also echo around the world.
Carol Megathlin is a Savannah writer.