Swimming, Winning, Sinning, and Spinning

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY, and trillions of versions, which makes life complicated, but interesting. According to the Rio police, an unruly gang of drunken American louts rampaged through the city, setting fire to vacant houses, frightening homeless children, separating well turned out members of the upper middle class, few that there are, of their possessions at gunpoint, checking every lock that wasn't locked, smashing beer bottles, yelling anti Catholic epithets, and generally making a nuisance out of themselves. The official American Olympic aquatic athletic version is that the upstanding boys were strolling with great dignity, so as to avoid wrinkling their tuxedos, doing a bit of post race sight seeing, Bibles in hand, singing hymns swimmingly if a bit off key, remarking on the beauty of the Christ the Redeemer statue, when suddenly and unexpectedly they were accosted by an even larger group of marauding toughs, brandishing arms, demanding cash, American. Our swimmers deferred, indicating that they would gladly have offered whatever monetary assistance they could without the need of any threat of force, but obliged, willingly, in keeping with various admonitions found in the New Testament concerning giving unto the poor, and all that.....Our wholesome young gentlemen then went about their day, poorer but unbent, praising the lord for their deliverance from evil and mosquitoes, giving thanks for chlorine and clear water. And there you have it, two distinctly different versions of what hardly seems the same event. We are thus left with a choice between two extremes. As always, we may presume that the truth lay somewhere in the middle, not at all close to either version, since the choice is between a version rendered by young and arrogant American champions of sport, which means automatic self serving exaggeration, and Brazilian police, which points to corruption. Let's assume this: the kids, pampered, American middle class, and thus full of themselves, needed to relieve themselves, and, finding no acceptable location, tried to force entry by pounding a door into submission much as they had done to their swimming opponents, did the deed, and having made too much noise, attracted too much unwanted attention from the wrong party, and got caught. They landed in jail, foreign police recognizing and seizing upon a rare and good opportunity to put Americans in their place, and not wanting to pass up what may never come again. Then, the spinning of tall tales began. Enter the American media, equally aware of opportunity for profit through the usual mode of yellow journalism, which gave their take, and as for the rest of us? Well, we just did what we always do when stuff hits the fan; formed our own opinions, never letting any verified facts interfering with our fantasies. Only this time we were marginally justified, for, what exactly were the facts? The only certainty is that we'll never know for sure.........PLEASE SHARE THIS WEBSITE. NEVER LET A GOOD STORY GO UNREAD.