It’s worth considering that perhaps the most valuable lesson from the 1996 Centennial Summer Olympic Games was one Atlantans and Georgians taught ourselves.
It’s at risk of being forgotten, we believe, in a metro Atlanta and world that’re now a full generation past the ’96 Games.
We all recall the front-story. Of how our hard-striving Southern city won – and subsequently pulled off – one of the world’s best-known global gatherings.
There’s a backstory here, too. And therein lies the lesson.
To make the Olympics unfold here, Atlantans and Georgians from all stations in life labored mightily and unceasingly in boardrooms, backrooms and in every space between. The result was a largely successful delivery of an inspiring spectacle of competition and cross-border camaraderie that is the quadrennial games.
Atlanta was intent then on putting on a great show for the world. We wanted the entire planet to take notice of this metro area – and its long, hard-won rise to greatness. Atlanta, even then, yearned to be a city of international renown.
We delivered. Together. The usual divisions and squabbles common to humankind and this metro did not carry the day and substantially damage our end-game.
We got ‘er done. Even the headline-grabbing malevolence of a murderer’s bomb could not besmirch that great truth. The united toil of tens of thousands of Atlantans and others paid off in the end as our region played host to the premier athletics competition intended to celebrate both the unity of global humankind and the rejuvenating, connective value of good, old-fashioned competition and sportsmanship.
We succeeded in showing the world what this great Southern capital could do when our efforts were aligned toward a common, constructive goal. Twenty years later, that lesson is worth both recollection and earnest reflection.
Could we do it again today? That question is worth pondering.
We live in a world, nation and American society that, at times, seemingly has gone mad. Too often, violence senselessly runs riot both in the streets and behind closed doors. This plague afflicts neighborhoods both affluent and impoverished. We’re relearning the meaning of a long, hot summer. It will take a lot more than angry posturing and finger-pointing from all corners to begin any cool-down of tensions.
A heavy pall of anger hangs over millions of Americans – and many metro Atlantans as well. At points, the volatile tinder of barely concealed rage seems to be the only thing that even people of goodwill share in common. Finger-pointing and shouting seem more common than handshakes and honest disagreement. Drawing toward polar opposites seems more attractive than hunting for even the smallest patch of shared ground.
While we fester and fume, work goes undone and opportunities lie fallow. Chances are squandered and gainful efforts are kicked far off into an uncertain future.
Can we really afford such a level of lost productivity and deferred gains? Can we not see its overall corrosive effects? It is a sobering question.
Here in metro Atlanta, we continue to feel the effects of inadequate infrastructure, ranging from roadways to water supply. That’s not all. Despite ongoing, multiple efforts, Georgia’s public schools still struggle to deliver the “adequate” education demanded by the state’s Constitution. Despite great progress since the Civil Rights Movement, racial issues continue to fester here and elsewhere. Fully achieving native son Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream seems as far away as ever.
In a civic sense, regional entities are still often inclined to compete – rather than collaborate – with each other. Young and old alike differ in what the metro Atlanta of today – and tomorrow – should look like and how it should function in terms of housing, mobility and other factors.
Altogether, it’s a disconcerting, if not depressing, state of affairs.
Yet, the ’96 Olympics should give us hope by showing what great, productive things are possible when people of different geographies, perspective and most any other point of differentiation can somehow coalesce to get big things done.
The 1996 Games showed that aspirational efforts – and results, even on an Olympian scale, are fully within our grasp if we can only pull together.
Think of how much greater metro Atlanta could be if that ideal still burned as brightly as the Olympic Torch. Regaining that collegial spirit is well within our reach. Or should be.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board.
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