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Character counts: Words tarnish U.S.
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More from OpinionIt wasn't a big story here, but you can bet it will be frequently retold and long remembered in the international sports community as another example of arrogance and rudeness associated with those "ugly Americans."
This most recent black eye was inflicted by a staff member of the United States Olympic Committee who scrawled "Welcome to the Congo!" on a board in the organization's Rio de Janeiro media center during the Pan American Games. It's hard to know just what was meant, but it was taken as an insult by our Brazilian hosts.
Rio's major newspaper published a photo of the board on its front page with a headline saying the remark was "full of prejudice." The U.S. Olympic Committee immediately apologized and sent the staffer home, but as a prelude to the Olympic Games in China, this is not a good sign.
Millions of sports fans all over the world form opinions about this country and the character of our people through the behavior of those who represent us in international competitions. Sadly, lots of people are anxious to find negative stories to reinforce anti-American prejudices, and scrutiny is intense and judgments severe.
What does all of this mean? The risk of damaging and discrediting conduct is high and so is the responsibility to develop a rigorous and systematic selection and training process that does all that can reasonably be done to assure that those who represent us do so prudently and honorably.
Last year, members of the U.S. Olympic Assembly were polled. Seventy-nine percent said, "Every U.S. delegation member — athletes, coaches, and staffers — should be required to participate in a training program covering role-modeling responsibilities and opportunities."
The recent incident in Rio ought to make this a top priority.
— Michael Josephson, of Playa del Rey, is founder and president of the Joseph & Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics and of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition. His Web site is www.charactercounts.org. He can be reached by e-mail at commentary@jiethics.org.
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