Olympic freestyle skiers Chris Lillis and Hunter Hess are getting blasted by the right simply for exercising their right to free speech. Hess said, “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. I think it’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t.” Hess also added, “If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” Hess said. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.” Lillis had said, “I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody, with love and respect,” Lillis said. “I hope that when people look at athletes compete in the Olympics, they realize that that’s the America that we’re trying to represent.” That shouldn’t be controversial. We are supposed to be able to disagree with our government in this country. This isn’t Nazi Germany or the Communist Soviet Union, where the government supposedly owns the athletes and dictates what they can think or say. These athletes have a right to their own opinions. You can wear the flag, represent your country, and still criticize what’s happening within it. In fact, that’s kind of the whole point of a free society. Donald Trump’s reaction says a lot more about him than it does about Hunter Hess. “U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” So according to Trump, if you don’t agree with him or his administration, then you don’t get to represent the United States of America? He won an election, he didn’t win ownership of the country. The United States does not belong to one man, one party, or one ideology. The Olympic rings are interlocked to represent unity, something this administration and its supporters seem to know nothing about. Unity doesn’t mean blind loyalty or being forced to agree with this administration that would make this country a dictatorship. It means standing together while still allowing people the freedom to think, speak, and disagree. That’s what actually makes representing the United States meaningful. We have not got to the point where we have renamed the Olympic team after Trump, I am sure he has tried, but until we do the athletes should be allowed to speak like all Americans are allowed to speak, with free will.
