 |
|
illustration by steed media service
|
On August 4, 2007 San Diego Padres pitcher Clay Hensley served up a 2-1
fastball that Barry Bonds tattooed into the left center field bleachers
to tie Hank Aaron’s MLB record of 755 career home runs. Rightly or
wrongly, Bond’s achievement will be met with inordinate amounts of
criticism, disdain, and antipathy. However, the greater issue is not
whether Bond’s has knowingly or unknowingly benefited from
performance-enhancing substances, but how tunnel-visioned and
hypocritical our nation and our media can be.
Barry Lamar Bonds is not a criminal. He is an immensely talented and
correspondingly arrogant professional athlete whose ability to belt
baseballs out of stadiums may have been prolonged via “controversial”
means. He may have lied to a nation about “the cream and the clear” but
did anyone get maimed, murdered or mutilated?
Imagine if the same scrutiny used in the unofficial yet public trial of
Bonds was applied to the war in Iraq and the handling of Hurricane
Katrina. George Walker Bush along with his henchmen, Dick, Don, and
Condi lied to the American people about Osama, Saddam, and Sept.11.
Hmmm . were any lives lost because of those truth-challenged positions?
Many sports fans think that Bond’s achievements should be met with
scorn rather than applause, but consider this. Does Bunnatine
Greenhouse think Dick Cheney and his Halliburton subsidiary, KBR,
deserve a pat on the back? Do the families of the 30,000 and counting,
American military casualties want to high-five Don Rumsfeld as he
rounds the bases? Do the 65,000 plus Iraqi civilians who have died
while we were “liberating” them think Condoleezza Rice deserves a “you
go, girl”?
I have no agenda to defend Barry Bonds but let’s re-evaluate what
actually deserves condemnation! If Bonds is a “cheater” what adjectives
apply to individuals who put lives at stake simply to make money and
gain political capital? –
g. mcclaren forde
