USA Hockey and oh my

February 28, 2026

OPINION by JOHN SUMMER

I got up early to watch the USA men’s Olympic hockey team play against the “Oh Canada” Canucks for the gold. I’m glad I did. It was epic.

Underdogs against a strong team that outshot us 2 to 1. And it was great to hear the expressions of patriotism amongst all the whacko stuff going on right now in our wonderful country.

I was reminded about the 60’s and 80’s team victories against the Ruskies in both Squaw Valley and Lake Placid. After living all over the world, my dad retired from the Airforce and we eventually settled in Minnesota. I avidly watched both the 60 and 80 Olympics on TV since I lived in Minnesota and hockey was our thing, although I was a ski racer and was more interested in skiers Penny Pitou and Buddy Werner in 1960 and Phil Mahre and Christin Cooper in 1980.

But the “Miracle on Ice” hockey gold match in 1980 was coached by Herb Brooks, who coached at U of M, and many of that team’s players were guys I was very familiar with at the time.

Those were times when we came together as a country.

These days, my beloved Minnesota is unrecognizable to me. “Minnesota nice” has turned into “Minnesota I’m so screwed up and don’t know where to turn with the idiots now in charge.”

By the way, I come from the era of Minnesota DFL’ers (Democrat Farm and Labor) Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale and Eugene McCarthy (who I worked for during his 1968 campaign) …. So I’m not some rabid right winger. Just a common-sense dude who uses critical thinking. Unlike today’s media.

I know where it all began. When I first started in the news business, in 1981, I did a story on a family from Cambodia who came over on the Vietnamese boat lift through the Lutheran church. They immigrated to Duluth, Minnesota of all places… which is one of the most 180 degrees that you can get from southeast Asia. But within a year, they started businesses and their children were fluent in English and were among the best students in the local schools.

They adapted with incredible speed. Wonderful people. Wonderful stories of success in America. They were grateful and loved America.

When we first moved to the Central Coast 30 years ago, we flew back to Minnesota for Christmas with three little kids. When we arrived at the MSP airport at midnight, it was cold. We were tired. And I just wanted to get everyone to the hotel I had reserved.

We waited for a cab. The driver pulled up and we started to get in. But we brought with us a bottle of Edna Valley wine for my wife’s mother. As we started to get in the cab, the driver, who was Somali, said “wine?” I said “yes” and he said “No take”… and drove off, leaving us stranded in the cold.

So I asked the dude who was controlling the cabs what the deal was. He said Somalis just started to move to Minnesota and won’t carry passengers with alcohol of any type. Great. Well I can play this game. So I told the kids to just say it’s “juice,” and the next driver, a Somali, came up and I told everyone to just get in the cab and that we had “juice.”

We got to the hotel, but I was thinking “What the fuck is going on here in my home state?”

Well, Minnesota is now paying for it by the billions in graft from a culture of “take” and it’s “learing” centers. Good grief. So sad. “Minnesota nice” bites back. One culture adapts and embraces our country. The other keeps to themselves and rips us off.

Another time we were back in Minnesota for a visit and my daughter, who was around 5 or 6 at the time, wanted a doll to represent the trip. So we went to this store that sold American Indian artifacts. I think it was called “Spirit Wind” or something like that.

Anyhoo (a Minnesota phrase), I asked the older white woman who was managing the store, (which seemed kind of strange for an American Indian store)…. If she had any squaw dolls with a papoose on her back.

The woman looked at me over her silver reading glasses with those long silver chains around her neck and she said: “Oh my, we don’t call them “squaws”” I’m thinking, well we had the Olympics at Squaw Valley in California…. So what’s the problem?

o I figured, ok, I can play this game. And so I asked if she had any “female indigenous persons with a minor indigenous person in a biodegradable and environmentally sensitive carrying device on her back.” Oh, we have that.

Squaw Valley is now called “Palisades Tahoe.” But then again, they reverted Sierra Summit back to “China Peak.” What’s the deal?

Me thinks we can’t figure out who we are these days. At least with those who turn blue holding their breath as they hold professionally made signs and “resist” everything good that is happening. Like the men’s (and women’s) hockey teams and their deep patriotism. If you can’t get into that, I’m sorry for you.