“Let
he who is without sin, cast the first stone”.
He
was, in his own words, “an arrogant prick” who cheated and doped (apparently
one of many in a sport that has some serious problems with doping). This
was wrong.
When
he felt threatened that his lies would be discovered, he lashed out and bullied
and sued people. This was really wrong.
Is
he a human being who has a lot of apologies to make and some serious
atonement in his future?
Yes.
Did
he also survive stage IV testicular cancer (to his abdomen, lungs
and brain) and lived to tell about it?
Yes.
Is
he also still a stage IV testicular cancer survivor who is an incredible
athlete, able to train and compete in grueling professional
level physical competition?
Yes.
You
can't take that away from him. It's not just about the drugs, those
drugs alone did not make him an athlete. Those drugs enhanced
his performance and endurance (there is not enough EPO, testosterone
or corticosteroids in the world that you could inject into my big butt
that would get me to that level of athleticism).
Has
he raised 80 to 500 million dollars (depending on the report you read)
for cancer research and survivorship programs that have benefited millions
of cancer survivors?
Yes.
Did
he give hope to millions of cancer survivors and put a very much needed
public “face” on the war vs cancer?
Yes.
Did
he make the U.S. government, NCI and our whole culture take a
more serious look at the needs of cancer survivors?
Yes.
He
was one of the first to remind the world that it is not enough to just
"get through" cancer treatment, that you are allowed to live and
thrive again too. Survivorship has long been on the tongues of those in
the oncology community, but Lance and Livestrong brought it to the forefront.
You
have to take the good with the bad, and for all the shock and outrage
over what he did (what many other professional athletes are doing every day),
he’s also done a lot of good and perhaps he is not done “doing good” in his
lifetime.
The
whole situation is sad, and fascinating at the same time. A cancer
survivor uses drugs that are all legally prescribed and commercially available
to cancer patients everyday to "enhance" his performance aka to
cheat. It sounds like a movie.
I
think if you work in the "cancer world" or if you are a cancer
survivor, your feelings are a little different than the average bear.
You're either:
1) grateful
for his contribution to the cancer world and so you can forgive him a
little more easily,
2)
he was your hero because he survived stage IV testicular cancer and not because
he won a bike race
3)
you are most upset because you feel betrayed, as you are the people who
needed to believe in him more than anyone.
4)
or....you feel a combination of all of these things.
In
the Oprah interview, Lance says that he really never considered it cheating.
Oprah looks on disdainfully and incredulously and asks Lance why
did he not "consider it cheating"? And basically without saying
it exactly this way, he tells the audience that almost everyone is using these
drugs in international cycling, so that is why he doesn't consider it
cheating. In his own mind he felt that the playing field was level
because everyone in cycling blood dopes. In a surreal way, you can
almost understand where he is going with this.
Perhaps
when all of the media hoopla ends, maybe there is something to be learned from
this. Perhaps this regimen of drugs and blood doping should be
examined by scientists to see if it could benefit those with testicular
cancer in the future. How has Lance stayed so healthy and disease free
after all of these years? Or maybe they find that the side effects
of this combination of drugs could cause his cancer to recur. I
don’t know and neither does anyone else right now, only time and science can
tell. It would be interesting to look at.
To
quote Oprah, "Here's what I know for sure":
Too
much of our government money has been and will be spent on this whole thing.
U.S.
Postal Service? Go deliver the mail. Why the hell did
our U.S. Postal service ever sponsor a cycling team? They are the
U.S. Postal service for God's sake. You could have given those
millions you spent sponsoring a freakin cycling team, to hardworking,
honest, employees or retirees for their dwindling pension fund.
Those
USADA dudes want to be FBI agents. You guys need to get your shit
together and you need to treat all athletes the same. Find an
accurate test to test them ALL and then stick to it. If they cheat:
fine them, revoke their title, punish them at the time of the
incident. 15 years later and retroactive testing for stuff that you
didn't know about at the time seems kind of crazy. Take a blood or urine
test the day of the race. Allow 1 month for full processing. If you
didn't find it then, you move on. If the athlete manages to outwit you by
stopping doping 1.25 days before a race, then hire a decent toxicologist who
can catch it or just give up. Call CSI if you have to : ) This means cycling, football,
basketball, baseball etc. Everyone is tested the same way. You go
after everyone the same way.
Stop
wasting your time and our taxpayers money hauling these athletes into
congressional hearings. Congress and Senate members....you have
enough to do that you aren't getting done to worry about this stuff.
Or...do
we just all accept that all professional athletes use drugs?
Finally Oprah, you only have one decent
show on your whole lame network. Here is your highest rated show and you
can't repeat it a few times for those of us who were working and didn't
realize it was a two-parter? You absolutely have to have on 10
straight episodes of something called "Usual Suspects" Season
3???? Puh-leeze.
As for me, I will continue to have hope
that Lance bounces back. You cannot experience cancer and not learn something.
I believe deep down his work with Livestrong and this whole
experience will make him a better person. He was the founder, we cannot
forget that. You cannot spend time working with cancer patients and
not become a better person. I'll be pulling for you Lance. I hope Livestrong which is truly a great
organization can survive this.
Because
after all....
I agree with you COMPLETELY Sandy! We shouldnt forget the important things he has done involving cancer survival and the way we think about cancer....
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input Debbi. And, thanks for reading my blog!!!
ReplyDelete