July 30, 1996

Gone, but not without a show

BY JIM O'LEARY
Executive Producer SLAM! Sports ATLANTA -- Perhaps all you need to know about the quickie ceremony that reopened Centennial Olympic Park today is that Alice Hawthorne was mentioned just once. So too was AT&T.
Hawthorne is the woman killed by Saturday's bomb blast that caused the closure of the park. AT&T is the park's official sponsor and the company that brought us the ceremony of "rememberance and renewal.''
There's little sense pretending this was a memorial to anyone. It was a celebration of Americana. It was Gospel and Gumble, cameras and Christians. It was a huge photo op in which people chanted "USA, USA,'' and chased after celebrity autographs and watched benignly as tv crews trampled over flowers laid by teary teens on a grassy hill near the site of the bombing.
A police barricade kept them well back from the actual spot, not out of respect for the dead and injured, but because NBC had turned the grassy area adjacent to the bomb site into an improptu television studio. Bryant Gumble and Katie Couric were broadcasting live, and when the bright TV lights went up, and the people cheered, Gumble, smiling, turned and waved, which caused the people to cheer even louder. As all this was happening, a gospel choir, rehearsing for the big show to begin an hour later, was bellowing out their hallelujahs.
Yes, it was bizarre.
Minutes later, the show done, Couric wandered towards the flowers and, for a second, looked as if she might be stopping to pay her respects. Instead she stood 15 feet from the trampled carnations to pose for pictures and sign autographs. A man chanted "Katie, Katie, Katie,'' but if he was waiting for her to blush, he waited in vain.
The gates to the park were opened at 8 a.m., two hours before the ceremony. Among the first to enter were hundreds of singing teens from a Christian organization called Youth on a Mission. They were followed by a phalanx of camermen and reporters, who were followed by a steady stream of Atlantans and tourists, most lugging video equipment or cameras of some type.
"We should get someone to take a picture of us,'' a man said to his female companion when they arrived at the bomb scene.
Among the crowd was Alan Hilbert of Woodstock, Ga. He'd taken his family to a concert in the park the day before the explosion, sitting where the bomb would explode a day later.
"This has become quite personal to me,'' he said. "It's not just an insult against the Olympics or Atlanta or the USA. This is the first time an act of terror affronted me that way. I felt I had to come today out of respect for Mrs. Hawthorne and her family.''
Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell worked the crowd. A man distributed balloons, others tried to peddle the bible. A pin trader set up shop and did brisk business. A police blimp hovered overhead and occasionally a police helicopter swooped past.
American wrestler Matt Ghaffari, his two-year-old daughter in his arms, came to lay a wreath and the crowd took up its favorite chant: "USA...USA...USA'' He called the bombing a "small glitch,'' and posed for the cameras. Then the American women's basketball team arrived on Gumble's makeshift grassy set and the "USA" chant was renewed.
As the crowd swelled into the thousands it became apparent that someone must be standing on the spot where Hawthorne was killed and her small daughter was wounded. But no one seemed to care. Another chant of "Katie, Katie, Katie'' was coming from the NBC set.
I had come expected a solemn memorial and instead walked into the grand opening of a theme park.
The formal ceremony began at 10:02 with a wonderful rendition of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee'' by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Maybe there was hope. Then Billy Payne introduced the honored guests: Governor Zel Miller, Mayor Bill Cambell, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and U.S. swimmer Janet Evans. Next came an important Olympic moment: Payne thanked the sponsor.
Former Ambassador Andrew Young gave the main address.
"We're here to proclaim a victory,'' he began. "We're here not to wallow in tragedy, but to celebrate a triumph, a triumph of human spirit.''
Young was right, of course. No one was wallowing in tragedy, nor dwellig on death and injury. He mentioned Alice Hawthorne and the Turkish TV camerman who died of a heart attack while covering the bombing. But he moved on quickly.
He sensed the crowd hadn't come for a eulogy. They came to hear some feel-good words. They wanted someone to tell them it was okay to have fun in the park without feeling guilty about the dead and injured. Young very eloquently granted their wish.
His speech lasted eight minutes, and when it was finished everyone was asked to bow their heads for a moment of silence. As moments of silence go, this was a flash, lasting maybe six seconds.
Payne than declared the park officially open. It was 10:20 a.m. Immediately, people rushed to join the lineups outside the park pavillions.
The so-called program of remembrance and renewal lasted 18 minutes. That's less time than it was going to take to move through the huge line forming outside of Bud World.