I watched some of the U.S.-Latvia hockey game yesterday and found myself partly pulling for Latvia. When I visited the country in 2001, I learned that ice hockey is to Latvia what soccer is to Brazil. One young woman told me that when Latvia beat Russia in the World Championship in 2000, hundreds of joyous Latvians marched to the Russian embassy in Riga and laid a wreath outside the gate.
Considering what’s happening in this country now, they could lay a wreath – unironically – outside the U.S. embassy.
