other.rnOn the bright side, there’s no questionrnthat the Barcelona Olympics wererngreat for the morale of Catalonia, andrnthe 1996 Games could be equally bracingrnfor the South. My buddy Chris wasrnimpressed, for instance, by how the InternationalrnOlympic Committee wasrnbullied into using Catalan as one of thernofficial languages at Barcelona. “Thernsports commentators,” he wrote me,rn”mindlessly reading what they werernhanded, told us that ‘Catalan is not arndialect of Castilian,’ which is technicallyrncorrect. Similarly, Southern English isrnnot a dialect of Ncbraskan.” Chrisrnwants to start a campaign for both Yankeernand Southern English announcementsrnin Atlanta, and I think that’s arnsplendid idea. It would be deeply satisfyingrnto hear “The javelin competitionrnwill begin momentarily” also renderedrnas “The spear-chuckin’ contest is fixin’rnto commence directly.” You all want tornform a national committee?rnAnyway, seriously, the Atlanta Gamesrncould be very good for the South. Butrnthat’s not the way they’re shaping up.rnAs it happens, I was in Atlanta just afterrnthe Olympics, when Atlantans were allrnagog about what they’d let themselvesrnin for. At supper one night I listened tornMichael Lomax, the articulate chairmanrnof the Fulton County Board of Commissioners,rnwho had just returned fromrnBarcelona and was talking about howrnAtlanta is going to do it better. What hernhad to say was troubling. AlthoughrnBarcelona managed to present itself asrnboth an emerging world city and thernproud capital of a proud region with arndistinguished history and culture, itrnsounds as if Atlanta is fixing to pretendrnthat it’s not a Southern city at all.rnWhen a couple of us objected that Atlanta’srnplans seemed to be ignoring therncity’s history and regional context, Lomaxrncheerfully agreed. Atlanta has beenrnthe capital of the New South for the lastrnhundred years, he said, and it’s time tornmove on. “We plan to present Atlantarnas the New America.” Now, that’s arnscary thought. Tiake away its history andrnits status as the South’s de facto capitalrnand the only thing remarkable about Atlantarnis the number and variety of itsrn”table-dancing” establishments.rnBut I do understand the impulse. Inrnthe first place, Catalonia can afford tornbe proud: it’s pretty much carrying thernrest of Spain economically. The South,rnthough, is still to some degree a colonialrndependency. Emphasizing our culturalrndistinctiveness and separatistrnhistory could be bad for business, discouragingrnoutside mvestment—andrnnowhere does that argument carry morernweight than in Atlanta.rnMoreover, like Michael Lomax, mostrnmembers of Atlanta’s political elite theserndays arc black, and when V. S. Naipaulrntoured the South not long ago, he wasrnstruck by black Southerners’ almost willfulrnlack of interest in their own and theirrnregion’s history. Although Naipaul mayrnnot have met a representative sample,rnhis observations certainly apply to Lomaxrnand his colleagues, but this is thernfirst post-segregation generation, andrnlike first-generation immigrants elsewherernin the U. S. they may prefer tornemphasize their American future, not arnpast that they find painful. PersonallyrnI’d rather they forget it (“move on,” asrnLomax put it) than dwell exclusively onrntheir historical grievances, but I hopernthose aren’t the only choices.rnIn any case, just because I understandrnwhat Atlanta’s doing doesn’t mean I likernit. The South, as a friend of mine isrnfond of saying, is a region with morernthan a future, and I’m happy to say thatrnignoring Atlanta’s heritage may be easierrnsaid than done. Several events havernbeen scheduled for nearby Stone Mountain,rnfor instance, and Lomax acknowledgedrnthat that’s going to be a problem.rnIt’ll be easy enough to get rid of thernhoopskirted hostesses, but the visagesrncarved in the “Mount Rushmore of thernConfederacy” will be a little harder tornobscure, and if the television camerasrndon’t linger on those figures it will be arntriumph for Atlanta’s p.r. people. (Alas,rnwe can probably also count on announcersrninforming us that it was onrnStone Mountain that the founding ofrnthe second Ku Klux Klan was markedrnwith a giant flaming cross, a fact thatrnfew Atlantans, nostalgic or otherwise,rnwant to dwell on, and I’m with themrnthere.)rnA taste of what we can expect fromrnOfficial Atlanta in the next four yearsrnwas given to viewers of the BarcelonarnGames’ closing ceremonies when therncity unveiled the mascot for the 1996rnGames, a blue, computer-designed noidrncalled “the Whatizit.” (Incidentally, therndancer inside the Whatizit turns out tornbe a graduate of my university, a formerrnhead cheerleader—in case you wonderedrnwhat cheerleaders do when the}’ growrnup.) Even the thing’s name speaks tornthe city’s loss of identity, and its form—rnwell, one Atlantan described it as justrn”a g—damn comma,” but at least fivernothers took pleasure in telling me that,rndespite its tennis shoes and lightningflashrneyebrows, it looks like nothing sornmuch as a spermatozoon. (Its race isrnindeterminate, but wc may hear demandsrnfor equal time for ova.)rnCome to think of it, though, thisrnspermiform critter may be appropriaternin a way: Michael Lomax told me thatrn120,000 condoms were distributed atrnthe Olympic Village, and the DreamrnTeam wasn’t even staying there. (Hernjoked about the opportunities for commercialrntie-ins. Atlanta humor.) I alsornread in the paper that visiting Atlantansrnwere impressed by the absence of bikinirntops on Spanish beaches and byrnBarcelona’s popular co-ed bathroomrnwith see-through walls. Where’s Erancornwhen you need him?rnAnyway, even some non-EstablishmentrnAtlantans aren’t wild about thernWhatizit. The city’s alternative newspaperrnfound one young woman whornliked it (“It’s cute, the big blue body andrnthe big eyes”), but even she didn’t likernthe name. Another reader complainedrnthat “there must be some venerablernsymbol of Atlanta culture that bespeaksrnour heritage as well as our future.” Evenrnas a symbol of the future, he said, “I preferrnto believe the future holds somethingrna little more inspiring for us than anrnamorphous blue blob.” A recent arrivalrnadded, “Just moving here from thernNorth, I was expecting so much more. Irnwas expecting something representativernof the South, like Southern hospitality,rnwhich is known throughout the country,rnnot some animal that no one knowsrnwhat it is or what it’s about.” Exactly.rnThe man who said that, by the way, isrnblack.rnIt wouldn’t have been hard to comernup with something better. I can do itrnmyself. So Georgia, like the rest of thernSouth, is no longer a rural kind of placernand you don’t want to use the obviousrnpeach, or peanut? OK, I can live withrnthat. Colonel Rebel (the little YosemiternSam-like figure usually shown sayingrn”Forget, Hell!”) is unemployed, nowrnthat Ole Miss has retired him, and so isrnChief Nockahoma, who used to pitchrnhis teepee in the Braves’ outfield, butrneven I can see that those guys wouldrnhave some drawbacks.rnLet’s just think about animals. OnernAtlantan suggested roadkill, and I kindrn42/CHRONICLESrnrnrn