Olympic Outrage?

I must be missing a chip or something, but I can only get angry about the Olympic uniform fiasco up to a point.

I can join the chorus, though, of “What Were They Thinking?” For Ralph Lauren to be allowing U.S. Olympic uniforms to be manufactured in China is the public relations blunder of the century – I feel like I can say that with confidence, even though the century has 88 more years to go. But Sen. Harry Reid wants to burn it all, and now many are calling on Olympic athletes to refuse to wear this stuff – if not for patriotic reasons, at least to show good taste, because many folks feel the uniforms are ugly anyway.

As I have noted in this space before, outrage is very satisfying, and the media thrive on it. OK, I get the message that the money going to Chinese workers should have stayed in the United States. I get that it’s embarrassing, because our Olympic team is a national symbol. This hurts especially because China is involved, of course, and Ralph Lauren allowed our noses to be rubbed in it – or those who decided to contract with Ralph Lauren. But we have only to look around us and see how much material that’s an integral part of our daily lives is from China or somewhere else. How patriotic were we when we stood in line to get the latest iPad or smart 3D TV?

Ralph Lauren will get what it deserves – outraged Americans aren’t going to buy any Olympic stuff it has designed – or perhaps even their non-Olympic products. But if we’re really angry about this, let our athletes express it in the competition, by winning as many medals as possible, especially in those sports that Chinese athletes have excelled at in the past.

Jesse Owens made a real Olympic statement for the U.S. with his spectacular performance in Hitler’s Germany in 1936. By contrast, outrage over uniforms seems just a little misplaced. The Olympics are about the games; the rest, when all is said and done, is about money.