Now that Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his cycling
titles, dropped by his sponsors, and is in hot water for other aspects of his
cycling career wins (specifically the return of moneys awarded as prizes and
bonuses for cycling wins, and as legal settlements from authors who claimed
Armstrong was doping), this has surely shown our kids that cheating does not
pay. (Well, not forever, anyway.) But will this end up having unintended
consequences? Let’s take a look.
We all know by now from investigative journalism that there
is rampant cheating going on in our schools. Apparently even teachers have been
caught cheating for their students on some standardized tests. And with so many
people cheating like this, doesn’t it make you stop and wonder what their
grades would be like without cheating?
Why, they’d probably all fail! And what will happen to our children if this
Lance Armstrong cheating scandal convinces our children to stop cheating? They
might all flunk out and get nowhere in life!
Look, I think this is teaching our children the wrong lesson
here. All their lives they have seen that cheating is the only way to get ahead
in this world. Look at the Wall Street crash, our political system, corporate
espionage, project sabotage in graduate schools, and yes, sports. This is the
way things are done, and they’ve learned that from experience. But now the
USADA comes along and tries to deny the truth that cheaters always win? Why,
our kids will become confused! They won’t know who to trust! Dishonesty and
cheating to get ahead were all they knew, and now we’re saying that’s not the
right thing to do anymore? How can they believe that, when all the evidence
points to the contrary?
It’s unfair to our children: that’s all I’m saying. It’s
very confusing to tell them that crime doesn’t pay when they can clearly see
that so often it does. And then they will think we’re all a bunch of liars to
say cheating is bad. Maybe it’s even cheating to tell them so. And to all of a
sudden start punishing cheaters after letting them win for so long, it sends
such a contradictory message. Don’t you think so?
Obviously, this is a sad state of affairs. But remember, you
can’t spell USADA without SAD.
