Yesterday, this was announced: "A US federal grand jury has charged baseball record breaker Barry Bonds with perjury and obstruction of justice over an inquiry into steroids use."
In my ignorance, I am annoyed by this1. Can someone please explain to me why my tax dollars are being wasted on an investigation into whether or not some athlete "cheated"?
I do not support lying to a jury while under oath, or even while not under oath. I think people that are found to be lying while giving sworn testimony should be charged with "perjury and obstruction of justice". The problem I have is this, I don't understand why Barry Bonds was even under oath, giving testimony on whether or not he "knowingly" used steroids.
Someone please help me see how this is a good use of my tax dollars.
- back This is not a statement of my position on the "Did Barry Bonds cheat?" issue. I'm not even sure that I have an official position on that. If I did, it might look like indifference.
posted by Shannon Smith @ 11/16/2007
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I think I would rather have my entertainment money spent on seeing heroes fall then my tax money, but I am much more concerned about the 2.4 trillion (21,000 a family), that is being spent on the war.
Much of which is making defense contractors rich.
Corey, you don't sound like you're from Virginia anymore!
Perhaps things like this become big issues because it's so difficult to look at the problems that really ARE big issues. Congress is often unable to come to terms with any major policy decisions (this week: war funding, the Alternative Minimum Tax correction, the Farm Bill), but they did manage to come to have the baseball guys in for several hearings and actually discovered some facts. I think that they just want to feel useful like everybody else.
As far as the Barry Bonds issue, if you step back and look at the societal process, it appears that we often create these celebrities in the hopes that we can take joy in their demise. If we're tired of watching our heroes fall, maybe we should take a look at redefining who we choose to be our national heroes. What else can we expect when we enshrine people for their achievements rather than their character? We create an achievement-based society in which moral lines are bound to be blurred in the race for further glory. So we get politicians who lie and athletes who cheat. In the end, is the Barry Bonds story really any different from what most of the rest of us are doing - grasping at anything that will give us a little bit bigger slice of the pie.
Wow, that came out a little more serious than I expected for a Friday evening. Have a good weekend.
Corey,
I'm not concerned with seeing "heroes" fall. Honestly, I want Sports Center to get back to being about sports. No more OJ in court, no more Barry Bonds and A-Rod off the field drama. Give me buzzer beaters, big hits, and spectacular catches, and leave all that other crap for Inside Edition.
Bernie,
Who are some good candidates for hero-dom?
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