One of the problems with nationalism is that it’s indiscriminate: you support whatever and whoever is from your country, regardless of merit. At the U.S. Open, fans rally behind the American players, just as, at the French Open, all the French players get the crowd’s support.
But good and bad exist under the same flag, as this year’s U.S. Open has shown us. Last week, the Polish player Kamil Majchrzak was signing autographs after a win when a man in the crowd snatched the cap he had just signed for a young boy and stuffed it into his wife’s bag. Majchrzak, who was still signing autographs, was unaware of the petty theft, but learned about it later. He reached out to the boy and made arrangements to meet with him, at which time he gave him a new signed cap (and some other things as well).
This made me feel very good about Poles, a people I have lived among and written about. Then the news surfaced that the man who stole the boy’s cap was a Pole, a wealthy businessman. The callous act of one Pole led to the generous act of another.
