Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 17, 1991 TAG: 9102170042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: HAL BOCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Once set afire in the outfield at Dodger Stadium - Chicago Cubs center fielder Rick Monday rescued it from that attempted desecration - the flag is now the most displayed symbol of solidarity linking sports with troops serving in the Persian Gulf.
Is the connection appropriate? Bill Walton, once a strident student protester during his days as an All-American basketball star at UCLA, thinks so.
"Sports encompasses all aspects of life," Walton said. "It's unfortunate when people use the argument that it is not a platform for politics. I think it is best made by people who don't agree with political statements.
"I believe you can't stop and put sports in a vacuum. Just because people are involved in a special thing like sports, that doesn't prevent them from taking a position."
Marco Lokar's position was to withdraw.
When Seton Hall - like many other college basketball teams - gave flag patches to the players following the start of the war, Lokar chose not to wear his, saying he meant no disrespect to the United States, only that to support the war would violate his Christian religious beliefs.
"I have heard many people saying the flag should be worn in support of the troops and not in support of the war," Lokar said. "This is a foolish argument. The troops in the gulf are fighting a war!"
The fans did not buy the explnation and subjected Lokar and his pregnant wife to so much abuse that he withdrew from school last week and returned to his native Italy.
That disappointed Walton, who as a student protester during the Vietnam era, was a familiar figure in the anti-war movement, his long red hair often tied in a pony tail, a bandana around his head. He was involved in one sitdown on Wilshire Boulevard, helped blockade the main building on the UCLA campus and was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly, disturbing the peace, rioting and failure to disperse when ordered to do so by the police.
"The disturbing thing is that Lokar quit instead of registering his protest and keeping with it," Walton said. "It's disturbing to me that he quit instead of sticking it out."
That, to Walton, is the essence of protest - making a stand. "I think the acceptance of different points of view is crucial to American life and the processes where we reach decisions," he said.
"There are different ideas about policy and the wisdom of what we are doing but when we have men and women fighting and dying, we have to support them. How we do it is fair game for political debate. The real shame is when people are unaccepting of different views."
Never was that truer than during Vietnam when Muhammad Ali rejected the draft, explaining, "I ain't got no argument with them Viet Cong." America was not amused and Ali found himself stripped of the world heavyweight championship and banned from boxing for 3 1/2 years while his appeals passed from one court to the next. He eventually won on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At that time, the University of California at Berkeley was a center of anti-war dissent. The debate continues for this conflict. The school was the only member of the Pac-10 Athletic Conference not to have players wear flag patches or yellow ribbons until last week. Assistant chancellor John Cummins explained the position.
"Right now there is an awful lot of support for the war," he said. "But suppose it doesn't work out well and support turns and our players are wearing flags? What do we do then? Take the flags off?"
Then the university changed course. "The decision has been to leave it up to the individual's discretion ," said Tom Debley, assistant manager of Cal's public information office. Against UCLA Thursday night, all members of the team decided to wear flags. "That's fine," Debley said. "It's the individual's decision."
Sports has embraced patriotism before.
During World War II, major league baseball began celebrating the start of games by playing the national anthem. No one was quite sure what the Star Spangled Banner had to do with hits, runs or errors, but it seemed the right thing to do with the country at war and it quickly spread to other events.
Now, the emotional response to events in the gulf is a sea of red, white and blue.
by CNB