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| Lance Armstrong - All American Cheat, Liar and Bully |
I've always felt odd because I was never on to this hero adulation that the media always hypes. I never "got" the whole Lance Armstrong thing, even before he was revealed to be nothing but a liar, cheat and a bully.
I was slammed by some because I dared to criticize Beyonce for lip synching at President Obama's inauguration. "Why Ron, everyone does it." So that makes it right? Well no, actually. It was fake, just like her hair extensions.
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| Beyonce - lip synching or not? Only her manager knows for sure. |
Then there is the story of Manti T'eo who "dated" a beautiful college coed for three years until she sadly died of leukemia after surviving a terrible car wreck. She died the same day as his grandmother. Then it turns out Manti never actually met his "girlfriend" in person, only through the Internet. The "girlfriend" was fake, a hoax. So this story, all geared to gain sympathy for the "hero" Manti T'eo was fake.
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| Manti Te'o - another Hall of Fame Liar |
Then we go down the line of other fallen heroes like Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, John Edwards, Bill Clinton, ad infinitum. See where I'm going here?
Then there was the ultimate "hero" - Lance Armstrong (great name for a hero no?) - a cancer survivor who went on to wing seven Tour de France titles. It seemed to good to be true. And, sadly, of course, we now know it was.
CNN has a series of programs called "Heroes" or something like that. That just makes me feel icky. Real heroes don't need to be celebrated. To me having a program celebrating heroes just doesn't seem right. Well I'm glad to find out that it isn't just me.
Mark McKinnon, the former Republican strategist who worked for George Bush (of all people, see how "balanced" I am) came out with an excellent op ed yesterday on heroes (from which I have borrowed excerpts for this posting). See here for his full op ed.
This quote from Mark's op ed says it all for me:
"The lesson we should pass along to our children is that the real measure of heroism should be the deeds we do when no one is watching. It's the things we do for others without any expectation of compensation, recognition, or reward. It's the small, quiet footprints we leave behind."
I see real heroes almost every day.
The "hero" that volunteers their time at an animal shelter to make the life of an abused animal a little better.
The "hero" that finds homes for abandoned and stray cats and dogs.
The "hero" who is helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy clean up their homes so they can live in them again.
The "hero" that spends their own money and time to help bring together family members to heal old hurts and renew loving relationships.
The "hero" that volunteers their time to pick up the litter and trash along our public highways.
No, you won't see Anderson Cooper celebrating these "heroes" on his TV show for high ratings.
As Mark McKinnon said in his op ed:
"I think we've got it all wrong. Athletes and entertainers aren't heroes. They are mere mortals with talent and ambition. In a hyper-competitive world, they are driven to almost always bend the rules in the pursuit of all that fame brings with it. And then when they achieve fame, they think they are no longer subject to the boundaries that apply to the rest of society."
