To what extent in lying and what extent for believing?
Nov 5, 2014 11:11:42 GMT -6
Pennylemon likes this
Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2014 11:11:42 GMT -6
"A-Rod" or Alex Rodriguez has spent the better part of 21 months making a spectacle of himself. He's gone far beyond simply denying he was a junkie for juicing his sports performance. He's all but threatened people for saying so at some points, and vigorously fought any charges or hint of misconduct. He's fought with the energy and conviction of the innocent. He is guilty as hell on a hot day, and he's now ADMITTED IT. There can no longer BE doubt he was, in fact, a junkie to pump his personal score numbers and stats. People looked up to this guy. People believed him, and not JUST those who 'wanted' to believe. His efforts were SO strong, even I wondered for a brief moment....could he really be innocent?
Well, we no longer have to wonder.
Source
This is not a thread about sports though. This isn't a thread about some scumbag junkie in baseball. It's about Faith, trust and how we're losing even the small examples of it.
Lance Armstrong is another example. A man who had very legitimate reasons to be a role model. He fought and WON a battle against cancer in a very...awkward part of the body. However, he didn't accept it. He fought it and he kicked its ass. So well in fact, he went on with his cycling to win, again and again. So much, as it happens....others wouldn't accept it was legitimate.
Mr Armstrong was first accused of being a junkie in 2000, following his win of the Tour De France and second win in a row for that race. In a twist that only added to the burn at the end? He wrote a book following that race entitled "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.". An inspirational story, as it would appear then. In 2004, he actually SUED an author over a book that had the 'nerve' to suggest he became a junkie for performance boosters. Some people never know when to stop..and greed is the most common downfall of the arrogant and ignorant, this case is no different. Had he stopped in 2005, when he announced he'd retire following that year's race? He would have gone down as a major sports figure and inspiration. He didn't.
By 2010, Armstrong was once again under Federal investigation into his drug use and this time, it wouldn't fade or go away. This time, it would stick and hurt, despite not bringing charges directly in the end.
in 2011, he announced his retirement...about 5 years too late, as it happens for him.
In 2013, and after a WHOLE lot more drama that could fill pages here, he was stripped of his Bronze Olympic Medal. In what has to be the TRUE bottom for anyone in professional sports...everything he was or had in his professional life was taken and stripped.
In January of 2013, after YEARS of people believing in him and thinking he was being railroaded or framed by sour grapes over his repeated Tour De France wins? He admits what he did.
Source
Now this isn't a thread about cycling and it isn't about some junkie named Armstrong. (I'm sorry if my terms for junkie dopers offends anyone, but it is what it is. When you use drugs to cheat others out of what THEY worked a lifetime to achieve, so YOU can steal it from them? You're a scumbag and a junkie)
This is a thread about Faith and trust, as I've mentioned.
Well, we no longer have to wonder.
But in a Drug Enforcement Administration conference room back in January, facing federal agents and prosecutors who granted him immunity, baseball’s highest-paid player admitted everything:
Yes, he bought performance-enhancing drugs from Biogenesis of America, paying roughly $12,000 a month to Anthony Bosch, the fake doctor who owned the clinic. Yes, Bosch gave him pre-filled syringes for hormone injections into the ballplayer’s stomach, and even drew blood from him in the men’s room of a South Beach nightclub. And yes, the ballplayer’s cousin, Yuri Sucart, was his steroid go-fer.
Yes, he bought performance-enhancing drugs from Biogenesis of America, paying roughly $12,000 a month to Anthony Bosch, the fake doctor who owned the clinic. Yes, Bosch gave him pre-filled syringes for hormone injections into the ballplayer’s stomach, and even drew blood from him in the men’s room of a South Beach nightclub. And yes, the ballplayer’s cousin, Yuri Sucart, was his steroid go-fer.
This is not a thread about sports though. This isn't a thread about some scumbag junkie in baseball. It's about Faith, trust and how we're losing even the small examples of it.
Lance Armstrong is another example. A man who had very legitimate reasons to be a role model. He fought and WON a battle against cancer in a very...awkward part of the body. However, he didn't accept it. He fought it and he kicked its ass. So well in fact, he went on with his cycling to win, again and again. So much, as it happens....others wouldn't accept it was legitimate.
Mr Armstrong was first accused of being a junkie in 2000, following his win of the Tour De France and second win in a row for that race. In a twist that only added to the burn at the end? He wrote a book following that race entitled "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.". An inspirational story, as it would appear then. In 2004, he actually SUED an author over a book that had the 'nerve' to suggest he became a junkie for performance boosters. Some people never know when to stop..and greed is the most common downfall of the arrogant and ignorant, this case is no different. Had he stopped in 2005, when he announced he'd retire following that year's race? He would have gone down as a major sports figure and inspiration. He didn't.
By 2010, Armstrong was once again under Federal investigation into his drug use and this time, it wouldn't fade or go away. This time, it would stick and hurt, despite not bringing charges directly in the end.
in 2011, he announced his retirement...about 5 years too late, as it happens for him.
In 2013, and after a WHOLE lot more drama that could fill pages here, he was stripped of his Bronze Olympic Medal. In what has to be the TRUE bottom for anyone in professional sports...everything he was or had in his professional life was taken and stripped.
In January of 2013, after YEARS of people believing in him and thinking he was being railroaded or framed by sour grapes over his repeated Tour De France wins? He admits what he did.
Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Thursday night.
Did he use EPO? Testosterone? Cortisone? Human growth hormone? Illegal blood transfusions and other blood doping? Armstrong answered "yes" on all counts.
Did he use EPO? Testosterone? Cortisone? Human growth hormone? Illegal blood transfusions and other blood doping? Armstrong answered "yes" on all counts.
Now this isn't a thread about cycling and it isn't about some junkie named Armstrong. (I'm sorry if my terms for junkie dopers offends anyone, but it is what it is. When you use drugs to cheat others out of what THEY worked a lifetime to achieve, so YOU can steal it from them? You're a scumbag and a junkie)
This is a thread about Faith and trust, as I've mentioned.
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The A-Rod news is fresh and on today's wire. The Armstrong issue is older news and somewhat tired by now. They both stand to pose one question. HOW far to lie and HOW far to believe? HOW far do we go and HOW far WILL we go in pursuit of either end...and are they sometimes the SAME end?
I was raised in a nation and world where we knew good from bad. Right from wrong. Evil..from purity. It was clearer. MUCH clearer back then. Chester the Molester was a dirty old man..not a nice looking guy (or girl these days) at the YMCA. Sports was about playing a game, albeit very well paid, still a game in the end. Dollars didn't dictate every single thing that happened, in every level of public perception for the ways they do now.
Most of all, it seemed....one could tell better who was lying. That is probably all misconception of a past that isn't half as shiny as memory would have it appear. However, I DO know to recall people didn't fight nearly to the death, in and out of court, on and off the field of sport and across the very living rooms of their most ardent fans ...to back a lie they KNEW to be a lie and they knew plenty of others KNEW to be a lie. Perhaps it happened...but not like this.
So...Here is the point to leave pondering, if the above examples of the extent people go to lie, believe and use the emotions of those who support them most has done nothing else?
How far do YOU go to believe in or for something you care about? Someone you think you know about? A cause you think you understand from a distance? How far will you go to defend a truth you can't personally know to be true or false, but carry anyway, by faith in the person or thing it is about?
How far do you go to believe in something you need to believe in, for whatever reasons? How far will you go to defend that belief, when facts come to dispute and eventually disprove it entirely? How far have you gone to foster a belief that felt good or tied into something else which required defense of the one, to support the other?
How far is too far, on both and is there ANYONE left in the world of public awareness today who deserves any effort on our part to believe?
I was raised in a nation and world where we knew good from bad. Right from wrong. Evil..from purity. It was clearer. MUCH clearer back then. Chester the Molester was a dirty old man..not a nice looking guy (or girl these days) at the YMCA. Sports was about playing a game, albeit very well paid, still a game in the end. Dollars didn't dictate every single thing that happened, in every level of public perception for the ways they do now.
Most of all, it seemed....one could tell better who was lying. That is probably all misconception of a past that isn't half as shiny as memory would have it appear. However, I DO know to recall people didn't fight nearly to the death, in and out of court, on and off the field of sport and across the very living rooms of their most ardent fans ...to back a lie they KNEW to be a lie and they knew plenty of others KNEW to be a lie. Perhaps it happened...but not like this.
So...Here is the point to leave pondering, if the above examples of the extent people go to lie, believe and use the emotions of those who support them most has done nothing else?
How far do YOU go to believe in or for something you care about? Someone you think you know about? A cause you think you understand from a distance? How far will you go to defend a truth you can't personally know to be true or false, but carry anyway, by faith in the person or thing it is about?
How far do you go to believe in something you need to believe in, for whatever reasons? How far will you go to defend that belief, when facts come to dispute and eventually disprove it entirely? How far have you gone to foster a belief that felt good or tied into something else which required defense of the one, to support the other?
How far is too far, on both and is there ANYONE left in the world of public awareness today who deserves any effort on our part to believe?
