THE GULF WAR : Words on the War

“If war brings out the best in some--selflessness and sacrifice--it also brings out the worst. A crowd at a sporting event is particularly susceptible to the sort of stupid and cruel hysteria that hounded an Italian basketball player, Marco Lokar, from this country. Lokar chose not to wear an American-flag patch on his Seton Hall uniform. In a recent game, Lokar was jeered each time he touched the ball. When an arena full of people shouts ‘U.S.A., U.S.A.,’ the line between healthy pride and vicious, mindless jingoism is hard to identify. Those of us who choose not to wear our patriotism on our sleeves, or fly it from a flag pole, run a risk. May we all be luckier than Marco Lokar.”

--BILL LITTLEFIELD, commentator for National Public Radio.