I still remember watching Hans Klammer win the downhill ski
race in the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck,
Austria. (if
you have never seen it, you can see it here). He skied last among the top seeds,
and one of his predecessors that day had already set an unbelievably fast time
for the course. So Hans threw caution to the winds and went all out, skiing the
whole course so fast and with such abandon that he was on the knife edge of
disaster the whole way, and winning gold by a fraction of a second. It was a heart-stopping performance and I
have never forgotten it, and the lesson I learned from it, which is that there
are times in life to go all out, commit fully and damn the consequences.
I think of that as I watch European and America politicians
try to find politically safe ways to deal with all the current crises, and consequently
fail repeatedly. If there was ever a time to go all out politically, bite the
bullet and push through the drastic policies that we can all see (if we are
honest with ourselves) are required, it is now.
Where is Hans Klammer when we need him?
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