“Losing sucks. I’m really bad at it.”
Hope Solo response after Soccer fans go livid because she called the Swedish Soccer Team “cowards.”
Predictably her comments about one of the greatest soccer matches in history will give all a platform to take the moral high ground on the true meaning of being a good sport.
But it is not that simple.
We are Americans-Losing does suck!
https://webapp.zedge.net/browse/wallpaper/?id=9176536#featured
I suspect now most of the world will express anger at Hope Solo, whom they do not know.
However, she has been through much tougher times than the trite moral posturing and life lesson psycho babbling sports articles and the very predictable “savage” twitter attacks.
Her father Jeffrey Soto was Bronx native and Vietnam Vet who went through some very hard times. The Vietnam War is rapidly fading into a distant memory of a lost war that destroyed a lot of good people and also families.
“The only one who really knew me was my father,” she has said.
Jeffrey Solo, a Bronx-born Vietnam veteran and ex-con con man, taught her to play soccer when she was 5. A year later, he moved out of the family house, living occasionally on the streets of Seattle or in a tent in the woods on the outskirts of the city.
Jeffrey Solo reconnected with his daughter when she was starring on the University of Washington team. He came four hours early to every home game and she brought macaroni and cheese to his tent, where they talked for hours.
In 2001, their story took an even more bizarre turn when Solo’s father became a suspect in a brutal Seattle murder. With suspicion still hanging over him, he died of a heart attack, on the eve of the 2007 World Cup. Solo sprinkled her father’s ashes in the goal box before every game of the tournament.
Solo defended her father’s name for years.
Finally, last September, investigators discovered evidence that Jeffrey Solo had been framed by a rogue cop who they now believe committed the murder.
There are fewer than 1/3 Vietnam Veterans left who served in South East Asia. The average age is 69.
Of the 2,709,918 Vietnam veterans that served in Southeast Asia, fewer than 800,000 are still alive. Almost 59,000 were killed in action, and around another 100,000 were severely disabled. Claims have been made about Vietnam vets having higher suicide rates, more substance abuse problems, and higher incidences of homelessness.
Also, the number of soldiers from the war alive today is evidence that Vietnam vets paid a high price for their service.
Agent Orange killed a lot of Vietnam veterans before their time. The National Academy of Science and the VA link exposure to Agent Orange to such horrible diseases as Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia prostate cancer and Ischemic Heart Disease.
Teaching your 5 year old daughter how to play soccer and putting her on a path to be the greatest Goal Keeper in American soccer history is a powerful legacy.
There are few soccer players better suited to play goalie than the perfectly named Hope Solo. A self-described loner, she is the best player on the U.S. women’s soccer team, and its most outspoken. (Simon Bruty / Sports Illustrated / Getty Images)
And then sadly wrestling with inner daemons, living on the street, and being set up for murder by a rogue cop is truly tragic.
America owed more to Jeffrey Solo. His fellow Vietnam Veterans some on a Wall in DC might just rise up in spirit against people attacking his daughter and the great line from “Saving Private Ryan” is fitting: Hey asshole! Two of our guys died trying to find you all right?
Well two thirds of Vietnam Veterans, including Jeffrey Solo have died before their time trying to save America.
Thankfully, when it really counted Hope Solo defended her father.
So it is commendable that she states “Losing Sucks.”
Losing the Vietnam War really sucked. I suspect most of her late father’s fellow Vietnam Vets understands her attitude perfectly.
Ed Timperlake was the National Director of President Reagan’s Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program.
For an excellent article on Hope Solo see the following:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/hope-solo-drops-her-guard-138385366/?no-ist
“Solo has always been fearless in the box, fiercely protecting her turf, knocking down all the shots fired at her, or her family.”
Editor’s Note: Sadly, as predicted there are many, many articles attacking Hope Solo by morally high posturing writers.
One writer should have known better and was especially egregious.
Christine Brennan is a moderately competent “award winning” reporter. The press loves to give each other awards.
However, when it really counted, in a situation deserving total understanding and compassion, she joined the public lynch mob.
I guess Hope Solo didn’t measure up to her standards, nor did she have the life advantages that Brennan capitalized on in print.
It must be nice to be so judgmental without any true understanding.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Seat-House-Daughter-Journey/dp/0743254368
Here is her “I told you so” comment
Hope Solo implosion has been a long time coming. Truly embarrassing handling of the domestic violence issue by US Soccer, now here we are.
Touching back to her previous article excoriating Hope Solo, she quoted Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) whose track record includes insulting the late Jeffery Solo and all his brothers with his own fake Vietnam Vietnam Combat claims:
“..On Thursday afternoon, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., released a letter he sent to Gulati, calling for U.S. Soccer to “conduct a thorough investigation into this incident.
“In the interim,” Blumenthal wrote, “I urge U.S. Soccer to reconsider Hope Solo’s position as an active member of Team USA.
As boys and girls tune in to Friday’s game, watching the women on TV as role models, it sends exactly the wrong message to start Hope Solo at goal.”
On Senator Blumenthal and his “war record”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/richard-blumenthal-vietnam_n_579656.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19veterans.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html?pagewanted=all
Editorial Update (8/18/2016)
It took a great human tragedy to show the world that Hope Solo was courageously correct to be extremely concerned about mosquito born illness.
Ibsen’s great play “Enemy of the People”was made very real at the Olympics in Brazil.
As all saw even before her comment on the U.S. game against Sweden, Hope Solo had been viciously attacked and hated by highlighting the threat of Zika and mosquito born illness.
Her quest was to bring much public awareness but sadly her message was just not Politically Correct (PC) and was roundly mocked by know nothings.
The daughter of a Vietnam Veteran would know first hand that being in the tropics can often lead to very serious illnesses.
Preparation and precautions are essential.
Now a potential deadly illness has stricken and a BBC reporter is fighting for her life:
A television sports presenter is in a coma with malaria in a Rio hospital following a 3,000-mile charity cycle ride.
Charlie Webster, 33, who has worked for Sky and ITV, became unwell after watching the Olympic opening ceremony.
Sky said Ms Webster’s agent had confirmed that she was on life support with a rare strain of the disease.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-37115095
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-zika-infection-affect-adult-brain.html
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