When Kyla Harrison became the first American to win a gold medal in judo, I got excited.  Sure, I was excited because I love judo as a sport.  I’ve practiced judo off and on for almost ten years and love watching it.   But that’s not what I felt.  As a radical dissident, patriotism has never appealed to me.  But there’s something about watching US women’s sports that made me feel strangely connected to the United States.  Almost proud to be an American.   That’s when I realized what, behind the sports, the Olympics is all about.

Nationalism.  And the Olympics can help us understand its nature and why we must start thinking beyond it.

The rest of my article can be read on In Our Words.  I’m excited to be a new contributor to this blog!