A few thoughts on all the hoopla being made about Lance Armstrong and him going on Oprah for 2 and half hours to apologize for being dishonest…Some folks are angry with Lance which is understandable.. They feel betrayed. He let them down.. Many enthusiastically cheered for Armstrong as he won Tour De France after Tour De France and felt like a death-blow was delivered when he finally came clean on his dishonesty.. It’s the ultimate disappointment for fans.. Armstrong is now the poster boy for dishonesty.
It’s interesting watching all these corporations demand that Lance give them their money back because he was so dishonest. They claim they don’t wanna support someone so dishonest .. One has to wonder how many of those same companies were this outspoken, demanding their money back for dishonest politicians whose campaigns they contributed to?
It’s interesting see there are so many who are beside themselves and livid at Lance Armstrong for being dishonest but still to this day are staunchly defending and even forgiving to George W Bush and Dick Cheney for their dishonesty around the Iraq War and Weapons of Mass Destruction. I recall when folks said Bush & Cheney should be impeached for being dishonest and many folks all over the country hit the freaking roof..Many to this day while standing on mountain tops demanding Lance be punished aren’t so vocal about punishment for Bush or Cheney and for that matter even our current president and some of the lies he’s told.. Let’s reflect on that for a minute.. Why so contradictory?
How many people are dead because of the dishonesty of those we put into office? How many billions have been squandered because of their dishonesty? Look I get it and have no defense for Lance Armstrong.. He was dishonest. However, I’m clear about this, Lance didn’t cost me Billions.. The economy ain’t messed with 23 million people unemployed because Lance was dishonest.. The Middle class isn’t shrinking because Lance Armstrong was dishonest. We want accountability from Lance but none from the people who we’ve continuously rewarded with votes, and generous campaign support who lie to us more often and in way worse insidious ways than Lance could ever.. We want Lance to sit down and confess his misdeeds to Oprah.. But when can expect Bush, Cheney or the heads Goldman Sachs, AIG, Citigroup and other big time Wall Street banks to sit down and confess? When will we push for that?
I guess the strong lesson to be learned from our kids is, its easy to be mad at Lance and get all righteous but punk down when it comes to Bush, Cheney and others… Yes I said punk down..You see the problem here is, Bush and Cheney were never prosecuted for being dishonest and many clapped when they were given a pass…Y’all remember that? Don’t front.
When President Obama said some BS about ‘Its time for us to move forward‘ many of y’all cheered and ‘great job‘, ‘right on Mr Prez‘ ‘Hooray, we luv our President‘.. So you moved forward with Bush and Cheney being prosecuted for a long list of war crimes but your stuck on Lance.. Y’all ain’t ready to move forward on that.. You want your money back, his trophies taken and a more sincere apology. You want him stripped of his titles, but not to keen on having Bush stripped of his Presidency and having it be deemed illegitimate. Y’all ain’t ready to move forward on that..
This all goes back to the fake ass sports writers who ‘supposedly took a stance by not electing anyone to the Baseball Hall of Fame.. Many stood up and applauded. You said emphatically. “dishonesty should not be rewarded.. bravo sports writers’.. I get that?
With that being said, imagine if those media outlets those baseball writers worked for took similar stances during election season and said.. We can not reward dishonesty, hence we will not endorse a candidate for a particular offices. The New York Times made headlines by leaving a huge chunk of the front page blank.. We said this was needed. Imagine if that same New York Times left the front page blank for lying candidates seeking endorsements?
See those news outlets can do some easy shyt and say no to Barry Bonds and we give them high fives like they actually did something great. But wont bat an eye when those same outlets take millions from lying politicians and write glowing endorsement editorials…And we wonder why our kids are cheating on tests & acting reckless-Look at the adults in their lives..Our collective stance on dishonesty is inconsistent. If your up in arms and all self-righteous about Lance Armstrong cheating, but you’re running around cheating on your spouse, tests or taxes your just as much a dishonest creep as he is!
Everyone is talking about how Lance sat down to speak to confess his misdeeds to Oprah.. When can we get Bush, Cheney to sit down and confess their misdeeds to Oprah? When can we get the heads of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Citigroup and other big time Wall Street banks to sit on Oprah’s couch and confess? When will we push for that?
Sorry, but sports and politics never mix in today’s social climate. Interesting that during a 60 Minutes interview (years ago), Nancy Pelosi stated that any impeachment discussions about Bush is not going to happen. But, I am willing to bet many people did not catch that discussion.
Lance I imagine feels like the monkey is off his back. By him coming clean; which is not easy and admitting his transgressions- major props….
He probably lost a lot of $$ but cleansed his soul . So at the end of the day he did the class move and can move on. Me personally I really don’t think it detracts from what he accomplished and some of the charities he stood for.
Peace
Dave,
On a grander scale. Dishonesty has a snowball effect.
What does dishonesty lead to ——-Lack of trust.
Once theres lack of trust………….can lead to all kinds of chaos.
So when the youth see this ; to some that becomes the new norm.
Example, Yeah Yo gettin over on the Bit… You know. That would be the regular
convo. But what are the politicians doing….. Yeah YO GETTIN OVER – but who’s the bitch now. So yes THEY need to be accountable if they are REPRESENTIN !!!
This is one reason this late middle aged white woman loves this place. Things get said here sometimes that I never see said anywhere else. I grew up in the North Omaha projects and while growing up I didn’t see that people’s differences were so much melanin related (or the lack of) as they were ideas that were sneakily planted in our brains. I saw that it was because we are constantly played by people who want to ensure that they stay on top and those they consider lesser than them stay on the bottom and in reality that has nothing to do with color as much as it has to do with economics..Our ‘betters’ do everything they can to make sure people of different races are pitted against each other. Practically every form that we have to submit to whomever for whatever reason, from a birth certificate to the papers you fill out to enroll your kids in school to job applications, they all ask for your ‘race’. What color are you? They never just ask whether you an American citizen or not, they have to know what flavor you are, because for many people that is the determining factor of who and what you are. Because the idea was planted in their brains from birth that it’s skin color, not a person’s character (or lack of) that is the determining factor.
This post is dead on accurate. Notice that no one else has said anything like it, at least that I can find. America is full of cheaters and scammers. Look at Wall Street. But if you really want to make yourself hyper, here’s an article that will make your blood pressure jump thirty points after the first paragraph and they make Lance look like an piker when it comes to ‘cheating’.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/investinganswers/the-5-biggest-wall-street_b_994147.html
Great article.
I would have to agree. I think with diversity and melting pot that is slowly changing.
But it all comes back to the trust factor; which can take years.
The hope one day is that we are americans. But like the article states when you have our leaders being outright dishonest ; it not only halts progress it takes us back and behind.
The biggest and most successful dishonesty has been to keep people at each others throats based on the deception that there is a major difference between us, and that is skin color or race. (That has been a problem with the human race, world-wide, since we dropped out of the trees.) It serves to keep the poor and powerless exactly that – poor and powerless. We don’t band together and fight the reasons for our poverty, we fight each other because all we see is that difference. And it has been drilled into our heads that if one person of a different race succeeds, then we of another race are diminished somehow. That’s freaking stupid. And it makes our lives so damn much harder than they have to be.
I like this, green
PREACH!!!!!! cobalt.
hope he know it wont be an easy road The truth hurts. -seeme
That won’t happen they too connected.. (RED)
time to pay the piper – yellow
I surely agree with this.. they committed serious crimes, that resulted in people dying… and the cratering of our entire economy…
Deep..