LIV and the PGA

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Despite Congress’ thin interest in sports from a lawmaking and regulatory standpoint, they just can’t help but stick their nose into them. Last week, it was the LIV and PGA merger that was more important than the southern border.

Following the usual agenda, various parties were dragged in front of Congress to be grilled. Included in the testifiers were surviving family members of the World Trade Center terrorist attack, who were outraged that the Saudi Sovereign Fund, owners of LIV, seem to be on the brink of acquiring the PGA.  

On the one hand, I agree with them.

But I have a question for them. How many of them showed up in clothes manufactured in Vietnam? Some of my generation, me for sure, are outraged that we do business with Vietnam, the meat grinder where over 50,000 of my peer group lost their lives.

Outrage over enemies is a transient condition down through history. In 1773, not even in a declared war yet, a group of Bostonians on the night of Dec. 16 boarded a ship in the harbor and threw a cargo of tea overboard. They did not want to do business with Great Britain. 

After the U.S. Civil War, I have no doubt parties on either side did not want to have any business with the other side. Same with World War I. The sentiments along these lines from World War II were recent enough to leave imprints on my young mind.

My mother would not buy me toys in one local store in Troy, Ohio because, all they sell are “cheap Jxx junk.” Her indignant sentiments were not a reflection of the quality of the toys but their source. She had worked in a local factory during the war turning out armaments.  

When Volkswagen first came to the U.S. in the early 1950s, it was not well received. Tom McCahill, a famous car review writer at the time, called the 1953 Volkswagen Beetle, “a Kraut clamshell” although otherwise he gave it a pretty good review.

What did we do after World War II? We developed the Marshall Plan and immediately started rebuilding those countries who had been our sworn enemies the week before. Part of our impetus was the thought that if we didn’t do it, the USSR would, and we would lose them behind the Iron Curtain.

But nevertheless, it was the right thing to do.

If we kept all former enemies at arm’s length in perpetuity, by now we would be shut out of markets all around the world.  

We must forgive and forget; it is how we overcome wars and rumors of wars.

Yes, during declared hostility, we must not aid our enemies; but when the hatchet is buried, it is time to go back to business, no matter how tough it is.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press. He may be reached at jthompson@taii.com.