The Wonder Kid and The Legend
Jul. 7th, 2004 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerFreddy Adu got to hang out after practice yesterday with George Weah.
This article is great because it does a number of things at once. It reminds us that Freddy may be a U.S. citizen and may play for DC, but he's an African first of all and has a persona and a heritage that's a million miles away from leafy, suburban Maryland. It introduces (or reintroduces, depending on how long one has been following the Game) one of soccer's greatest figures; George Weah is not only a truly amazing player, but what he's done with the wealth and prominence he achieved by playing superbly at the highest levels of the game is an object lesson to every rich athlete in the world. He's demonstrated what the true value of love of country is: not jingoism or mindless fervor, but a love of your nation, a desire to help your fellow citizens and to make your homeland a better place.
And because the story puts George Weah in the context of what he's done for Liberia, it reminds us of how desperately that country, and others like it, need help, but more than help, need peace to be able to start healing. And it does that, not in the context of nameless refugees and incomprehensible destruction, so bitter and pointless that we can't get any grasp of it or personalize it. Instead, it shows us how that suffering connects to someone we can see and identify, and more than that, someone who is working to make things better.
This article is great because it does a number of things at once. It reminds us that Freddy may be a U.S. citizen and may play for DC, but he's an African first of all and has a persona and a heritage that's a million miles away from leafy, suburban Maryland. It introduces (or reintroduces, depending on how long one has been following the Game) one of soccer's greatest figures; George Weah is not only a truly amazing player, but what he's done with the wealth and prominence he achieved by playing superbly at the highest levels of the game is an object lesson to every rich athlete in the world. He's demonstrated what the true value of love of country is: not jingoism or mindless fervor, but a love of your nation, a desire to help your fellow citizens and to make your homeland a better place.
And because the story puts George Weah in the context of what he's done for Liberia, it reminds us of how desperately that country, and others like it, need help, but more than help, need peace to be able to start healing. And it does that, not in the context of nameless refugees and incomprehensible destruction, so bitter and pointless that we can't get any grasp of it or personalize it. Instead, it shows us how that suffering connects to someone we can see and identify, and more than that, someone who is working to make things better.
