When Common Sense Failed

[mike]

I don't really care if anybody flames me for this.

As soon as I heard this, my first thought was, "suspended with 1 round left to go for the championship. Seems like they didn't like an 'american' stealing one away from them."

You may think having that thought process was stupid. Saying that people are stupid for having this thought process is stupid in itself.

Why? One can make a couple of easy observations that many people from Europe have it out for us. Go to France and as soon as they find out you're from the USA they treat you like sh*t. Italy locked up an innocent girl to get back at us for no apparent reason.

From an outsider's point of view, it's easy to see that some people would think that TJ was screwed because they didn't like him doing better than the locals.

Oh, Samuel. The French don't like many people. Go there with an English (British) accent and they won't like you much either. You and some American's need to get the idea everyone as it in for you out of your head. The FIA didn't have it in for TJ. For the thousandth time, LOOK WHERE THE TEAM HE WAS DRIVING FOR COMES FROM?? It had nothing to do with them not wanting an American to win the title. If you believe that, than you are a silly billy!! As for that girl in Italy, I can think of many cases where innocent people from different countries have been locked up for no good reason. I highly doubt they were thinking "Oh lets get back at America" Are you ****ing kidding me?? America helped destroy my Grandma's country and a number of my relatives lost their homes back in 99. Parts of Serbia are still stuffed from it and the poverty is terrible in some areas still to this day. WHY CLINTON BOMBED THE SERBS: An Analysis Do you see me hating Americans?? Nope. Do I like the government?? Not really, and not just because of that, but because they can't even look after their own people. The reason a number of people from other countries don't like America is because of your government plain and simple. It sucks for those people that decide to hate on all American's because of their disliking for the government, because the common American person is one of the nicest persons you could hope to meet. Majority of my American friends have no love for the government btw. Americans for most part are loved wherever they go. None of my American friends have been looked down upon whilst traveling throughout Europe or Australia, also a lot of Europeans and Australians are obsessed with American culture. People love Americans for most part dude. Seriously Sam, you should travel a bit and go spend time living in other countries and open that mind of yours up just a little.

PS: Go to race in Europe or Australia when an American racer is running and see how much the crowd and other racers love it. Go watch some of the coverage from this years FIA season, or do some reading and see how much TJ's competitors loved having him there. That last line of yours really makes you look stupid having that train of thought man.

 

[robinjackson]

From an outsider's point of view, it's easy to see that some people would think that TJ was screwed because they didn't like him doing better than the locals.

Samuel,
Certainly not attempting to flame you. It may be easy to see at first glance, but it's wrong.

No one’s national pride is being pricked here. We in Europe may seem like one amorphous foreign mass to you, but the thing is, we are all foreign to each other too. Europe isn’t a country, it’s a continent, a patchwork of peoples, languages, cultures and customs, nation states and national characteristics. Through centuries past, our forebears fought bitter wars against one another. Nowadays, in general, we live on friendlier terms.

International sport is one common thread we have, dividing us on the field of play but uniting us culturally – a benign sort of warfare. Soccer is much the biggest element but, way down the list, drag racing plays a part too. Thank goodness, we all rub along well enough together in the drag racing community.

Fifteen different European nations were represented at Santa Pod last week, plus bike entries from Canada and Australia. As Michael V. mentions, the Top Fuel team that has seen its title hopes dashed is an international mix too: Danish-owned and tuned, Swedish crew members and an American consultant, Mr. Jim Brissette, as well as the American driver.

Until this Tommy Johnson Jr./Team Andersen saga erupted, I dare say few of us thought hard about drugs in sport. But anyone who follows sport in the papers and on TV could hardly fail to grasp a rough picture of the anti-doping system and how it works. The World Anti-Doping Agency formulates regulations and procedures that are adopted, not just by the FIA and all (almost all?) who sail in her, but by other major sporting organisations too: the Olympic Games, summer and winter; various World Cups; and a panoply of different sports around the world. We know enough to understand that TJ’s plight was clearly not occasioned by a few vindictive officials within the drag racing community – or indeed by vindictive officials anywhere.

So far as I know, Tommy Johnson Jr. has been welcomed and respected at every turn on his visits here. So too, in the course of this year, have fellow Americans Randy Anderson, Will Hanna, John Smith, George Bryce, Gary Stoffer, Scotty and Scott Cannon, Camp Stanley, Ed O’Connell, Mr. & Mrs. Jay Eshbach and Mr. Brissette – have I missed any? So too has a wealth of American visitors over the years, from Big Daddy on down, stretching back to the original British appearances a half-century ago of Mickey Thompson and Dante Duce which helped give the sport its earliest European launch pad. The American presence has been entwined with European drag racing since its inception – a history barely 10 years shorter than the sport’s history in the USA.

That's why this 'easy' suggestion of anti-American spite amongst crafty foreigners would be offensive were it not so ludicrous – and some have clearly not seen the funny side.

The TJ/TA Affair is now over. The story has been aired and the appeal heard. Perhaps now we should bag up this unpleasant episode and stash it on a shelf labelled ‘Stuff Best Forgotten’.