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It’s sad.
I haven’t kept up with all of the specific details, but from what I understand, Lance Armstrong is getting the raw end of the stick.
Has he ever tested positive for any banned substances? None that I know of.
If that’s the case, then why in tarnation are the powers that be trying to strip him of all of his accomplishments? How good can their case and justification be against Armstrong if the man has consistently tested clean over the years?
The problem is that in this day and age, you don’t really come by a hero in their own right without a little performance enhancing something something thrown into the mix.
Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and a host of other baseball players have achieved wonderful things for the sport in order to put butts back in the seats over the years since the 1994 player’s strike. Sadly, a majority of those players had to resort to Mother’s Little Helper to git-r=done, tainting the sport beyond the issue of striking for more Amigo money.
Understandably so, those who have gotten the job done on their God given talents alone stand accused of doing something they didn’t do. They subsequently get stripped of their accomplishments like Lance Armstrong, or get snubbed by places like the Hall of Fame. Does Roger Clemons come to mind?
This isn’t limited to just the sports world though. The whole concept of “You didn’t build that” follows the same paradigm.
Even in the context of what TOTUS & The Symbiant were actually trying to say, the general thought is that it takes a village to achieve great things. In all reality, it doesn’t.
What’s next?
Will this continued race to mediocrity fed by the collective desire to remain politically correct metastasize to other parts of our culture?
One has to realize that under the premise of “no one loses”, no one wins either.
I envision a day when our fictional super heroes are subjected to the same treatment.
Superman will test excessively positive for performance enhancing radiation from our yellow sun. Captain America will be stripped of his shield for testing positive on his go-go juice. The Hulk will be called before Congress for relying on gamma radiation. Tony Stark will be marginalized because of that thing in his chest. Bruce Wayne, of course will be subject to all sorts of court orders investigating exactly what’s in those Bat pills.
Regardless, it’s important that we keep our heroes intact. They’re a cornerstone to our inspiration. They’re the ones whose achievement serve as a foundation in which to build upon.
For those who have to cheat to obtain that status, let them do it. Step two in that process dictates that the cheaters be held up as an example that cheating to get “there” never really gets you “there”.
For those who didn’t cheat, the ones that put in all of the extra work and effort, I say this. The burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused. If the accuser can’t make their case, then the issue should be dropped. The accused should then continue to enjoy the fruits of their labor without the stigma of an appearance of impropriety.
