Poor Lance. Busted.
Like this is a big surprise, catching us somehow off-guard. A SHOCKING REVELATION!
Please.
There are tons of articles, opinions and stories about what took place in the wonderful world of professional cycling during what is now being hailed as the "Lance Era." You don't need me to recapitulate any of them. Not one.
But I would like to say this:
STOP THE HYPOCRISY.
Please.
Lance used PEDs, blood doped and ingested all kinds of other shit to win bicycle races. Like Letterman says in this video clip, "So what and who cares?"
I agree. Lance beat other riders who were taking the same drugs, under the auspices of their team, their managers, their coaches, the team doctors, the race directors and the team sponsors. EVERYBODY KNEW.
Nobody is right if everybody is wrong. Further, I think I remember reading somewhere about a bunch of hypocrites armed and ready to stone a prostitute to death (the golden era of suitable punishment) when a single powerful comment caused them all to drop their rocks and disperse.
You know the one: He who is without sin can cast the first stone.
Lance cheated. He broke the rules. He lied. He is now scrambling to cover up, rally and minimize the collateral damage. The guy is done. By is own admission he is "a flawed character with no credibility."
I agree with that too. He is not alone in that demographic. I can relate.
All he can do is try to accept the errors, the lies, the hurt and pain he caused to others, and then get on with it. Move along and try to learn the lessons of defeat.
Then he may well become a champion again.
In the meantime he, and we, don't need the peanut gallery taking cheat-shots at a guy laying in the fetal position suffering from severe internal injuries. Let the poor guy deal with those demons, as we must deal with ours. Or does it make it somehow easier when we see others suffer for their sins on a national, public, televised stage? Do you feel better now?
Please.
Poor Lance.
11 comments:
Oh no, its not too judgmental to judge the judger, so to speak... The main difference here, in my mind, is that Lance sued A LOT of people and other entities (and generally terrorized others)claiming they were liars, slanderers, libelers, drunks, prostitutes all the while KNOWING that they told the truth AND he recovered millions on these sham lawsuits/claims. If Lance's lawyers also knew the truth they, like Lance, are going to lose their licenses and all their ill-gotten gains/attorney fees. Its not improper "judging", its called fairness, justice or eye for an eye... Also, tell LeMond's family etc that they are being too judgmental...
By the way, I think 'judging' is the wrong word for individuals to use here, juries and jurists judge... and boy will they get their chances. 'Outrage' is a more appropriate word to use in this situation I think and a word under-utilized anyway in our society. Landis shouldn't judge but I think he is right when he says that Lance will likely go to prison for a time. The lawyers referenced in my post above sure would go if there was evidence they actually knew those slap suits were fraud.
I have no problem with fairness. He will get what is due, just and proper. My point was on the hypocrisy of those casting stones. Most likely he will be crushed by them, so mine will be used for building. He didn't hurt me in any way and I am more outraged at the outrage. Especially if your case is about dollars and cents instead of morals and ethics, sir.
There are stick and stone, ethics, then there is a recognized criminal code under which we all live in the U.S. and all criminal code violations do in fact do you harm (even in some small way). One of these crimes is knowing stealing other peoples' money (no matter how small or large amount that the victim may have...). For such crimes the "perp" has to give the money back and is often incarcerated. As for civil wrongs, like knowingly damaging someone's livelihood/reputation, the remedy is usually an award of money; because it is a predictable and definable measure that is easily exchanged or transferred. Money also has rather uniformly acknowledged value. People can argue their own morals or ethics til their blue in the face and everyone may be right to an extent. However, overwhelming evidence of a criminal or civil wrong is handled and defined a bit differently here. Even jailed prisoners have a very strict code built on the same societal offenses and they enforce those laws in their own way too, non-judgmentally of course.
Plus, this isn't heaven, lord knows people need to express their outrage when the subject is deserving. It is cathartic and teaches lessons to children and the uninformed. Hitler was popular for a while too and arguably achieved some good things for medical advances/research and road building and such. But Hitler will be castigated for eternity by humans for some very good reasons. He won't be rewarded because he was popular once, had a nice house and car, movie star/rock star girlfriends, a foundation etc.
All true. I agree. Why this warrants outrage is my question? WE ALL KNEW LANCE WAS CHEATING. He was given sufficient rope and is now hanging from a tree. He is flawed and human. He messed up. He will be punished. I addressed my feelings in the initial post: Admit guilt, learn the lessons, move along. If anything I am outraged by our societal reaction, OMG a champion athlete cheated to win, lied to his adoring fans and family, bullied, took drugs and tried to cover it all up with NPO do-goodery. Maybe the party that should be on trial is our grossly broken society that calls an athlete a national hero and ultimately drools at his downfall on Oprah.
I agree with most of that but not that everyone knew he was cheating. Most people care very little if at all for bike racing and know nothing about it. And, then Lance and his entourage did the disinformation thing on a lot of others who do pay attention. But what I am thinking mostly is that Lance is not in the Bonds, Landis, Marion Jones, Clemons, homerun slugger category of drug using athlete but a much worse category of organized criminal based upon his very calculated, widespread, many faceted actions of breaking criminal laws in order to steal money, as well as honor from other people (and often very vulnerable people at that) who were merely trying to make things right. He is going to get it a lot worse than people think...
I suspect you are right. I hope it is the tip of the iceberg and they, we do, what is necessary. I am sure that if LA got the death penalty, every person he cheated was compensated and all professional sports from this point forward behaved 100% ethically, that that would be the end of it.
RIGHT.
Seriously, throw the book at him. Blow the whole thing up and start anew. Zero tolerance. I am simply saying that I am deeply tired and weary of the media circus of moral indignation that so many self righteous masters of perfection judge him, now, to be scum. His actions and tactics were, and remain, disgusting. I feel sorry for him that he has to live with that. I feel very bad for his kids. Other than that I don't have a lot invested in the outcome. I am not attached to him as a demi-god, hero, or anything else. I have enough trouble trying to clean up my own act without him as a role model. George Carlin nailed it a few years ago: http://youtu.be/tlTr2GSVUGg
http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2013/01/18/1846487/
As to the George video, Tiger is so sweet and harmless compared to Lance, especially since the Swedish lady hit him with the golf club and ran off with his kids...
I have been trying to fit this in all day:
Tiger is the new Hitler. Golf compared to cycling is like fascism compared to zen. At last, the comedians win!!!!
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