Is it any wonder that someone who subjected himself to one of the most excruciatingly painful drug treatments ever devised by man to cure himself of a life threatening illness, and was in turn rewarded with life itself, would not then be lured by drugs that championed the promise of achieving the very thing he most wanted in that life?
A couple of years ago in the San Francisco MUNI subway system, the only advertisements plastered for months from one end of a subway platform to the other was for "the little purple pill;" giant, billboard sized posters of humongous purple pills enveloped and surrounded adult and underaged commuters alike in a totally captive environment!
I'm not making excuses for Lance Armstrong, he made his own decisions. But we're every bit as hypocritical if we allow ourselves to think that we've somehow bettered society by simply singling him out for punishment (however well deserved) while the pharmaceutical/industrial complex pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the body politic through its lobbyists each and every year.
If he is stripped of his seven titles, who amongst that hallowed band of dopers will then be subjected to equal scrutiny before being crowned the "clean" winner? Those seven years best remain vacant- or the governing bodies themselves should be subject to a most stringent review...
If only the banksters were pursued with such diligence and perseverance...
A couple of years ago in the San Francisco MUNI subway system, the only advertisements plastered for months from one end of a subway platform to the other was for "the little purple pill;" giant, billboard sized posters of humongous purple pills enveloped and surrounded adult and underaged commuters alike in a totally captive environment!
I'm not making excuses for Lance Armstrong, he made his own decisions. But we're every bit as hypocritical if we allow ourselves to think that we've somehow bettered society by simply singling him out for punishment (however well deserved) while the pharmaceutical/industrial complex pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the body politic through its lobbyists each and every year.
If he is stripped of his seven titles, who amongst that hallowed band of dopers will then be subjected to equal scrutiny before being crowned the "clean" winner? Those seven years best remain vacant- or the governing bodies themselves should be subject to a most stringent review...
If only the banksters were pursued with such diligence and perseverance...
4 comments:
Yep and yep.
"But we're every bit as hypocritical if we allow ourselves to think that we've somehow bettered society by simply singling him out for punishment."
"If only the banksters were pursued with such diligence and perseverance..."
Armstrong NEVER failed a drug test. EVER! So the bleating of a bunch of sore losers some how is taken as proof over the very anti-doping programs the body that is trying to crucify him developed baffles me. People are so quick to take down someone who has accomplished things they could never dream of. In my books he is innocent until PROVEN guilty by something more credible than a bunch of whiners with agendas.
Eric- I loved, loved, loved this guy! Read his book, watched him "win" each and every year- made me feel like a little kid again rooting for his sports hero. Unfortunately...
It took me a while to face up to "the truth." For years, all the top twenty, and oh so many more in the peleton were all doping. You couldn't crack that leading core unless you were crazy good- and doping. He had the numero uno best drug doctor in the biz advising him how to beat the testing system- which he repeatedly did (except for once where he was actually able to pay them off and change the result to "contaminated," after donating a sizable contribution to their... anti-doping testing)! Many a pro athlete has the timing of taking performance enhancing drugs in conjunction with the masking agents down- to a science.
Lance had both his training and his doping down to unprecedented levels of above and beyond. That does not diminish his super human athleticism and competitiveness- if none of them had doped, he would most likely have won anyway. Those would have been interesting races to see!
And unfortunately (or not), we're not going to get the opportunity to have him "proven guilty." He has seen to that. If anything, he is not dumb, the writing was clearly on the wall this time around- otherwise, he'd still be out there denying.
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