Hundreds of Thousands Cheer Courageous Black American in Berlin

I'll bet you thought this post was a report on the Obamessiah's speech in Berlin. Well, in an indirect way, it is.

While the press gushes about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin - and you know at least one will describe it as "courageous" - I'd like to point out that it's not that courageous to perform before large crowds of Germans who are cheering you. Courage is performing before large crowds of Germans and their dictatorial madman leader who thinks you're an inferior race.

From the official biography of Jesse Owens:

By the end of his sophomore year at Ohio State, Jesse realized that he could be successful on a more competitive level. Jesse entered the 1936 Olympics, which to many are known as the "Hitler Olympics." These games were held in Nazi Germany, and Hitler was going to prove to the world that the German "Aryan" people were the dominant race. Jesse had different plans, however, and by the end of the games even German fans cheered for him.

Jesse was triumphant in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the broad jump. He was also a key member of the 400-meter relay team that won the Gold Medal. In all but one of these events Jesse set Olympic records. Jesse was the first American in the history of Olympic Track and Field to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

And courage is not returning to a country that idolizes you, but to a country that rejects you because of your color. From Wikipedia:

Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House nor bestowed any honors by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) or Harry S. Truman during their terms. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower acknowledged Owens' accomplishments, naming him an "Ambassador of Sports."

Owens was cheered enthusiastically by 110,000 people in Berlin's Olympic Stadium and later ordinary Germans sought his autograph when they saw him in the streets. Owens was allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites, an irony at the time given that blacks in the United States were denied equal rights. After a New York ticker-tape parade in his honor, Owens had to ride the freight elevator to attend his own reception at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Let's keep this day in perspective.