First, there’s the Olympic skater....
You know the one. She’s Russian. She’s the best skater ever. And she’s fifteen years old. FIFTEEN! And apparently drugs were found to be in her system. So, was she disqualified like the rules say? No, that would have been, for lack of a better, following the rules. And as we’ve learned in recent years, we only follow the rules when they benefit the governing body or individual with the most clout.
Let’s not worry about the overwhelming mental burden of shame and embarrassment, especially if the crimes of the minor are in fact the acts of her protectors, who have stood up to say absolutely nothing.
Prior to that, there was Rudy Giuliani and The Masked Singer. Let that sink in. So, who was the guiltier party in this display of inappropriate, offensive, grotesque behavior from a public figure who once upon a time had a moment of glory – the Rudymeister himself or his handlers? Either way, representations of public embarrassment have found a new low.
And what about the revelation that the former president apparently flushed important incriminating papers down the toilet...doesn’t everyone over twelve know that that can stop up a john, so to speak, and cause a big mess, which, apparently, it has?
My point, I suppose, is this – whether you’re a mid-teen who has been in athletic training her entire life and hasn’t had the conceivable “window” in her carefully policed schedule to score a deal, so the crime is not hers, but her “protectors”; or whether you are a public figure who has destroyed any accumulated respect you’ve collected over the years, only to think it’s OK to come on national television dressed as a collectible toy from a Happy Meal and people would love to see that and would forgive you all of your offenses; or whether you’re a world leader who, for some reason, has never learned how to use a paper shredder – you can’t live your life constantly under a spot light demanding attention and then think no one’s watching when it’s convenient for you. There is no privacy any more. That’s why truth is more important than ever.
What happened to responsibility? What happened to good taste? What happened to common sense? I think they are all now back in the realm of individual responsibility, owned by each and every one of us. And if we don’t do our part to do what’s naturally, respectfully, common-sensically right, then we have no room to talk.
And speaking for myself, I need plenty of room to talk. Just sayin’.
No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
– Plato
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