OK, it’s not really about PEDS, it’s actually part of his eulogy to Neville Chamberlain, before Parliament, on November 12, 1940. But amidst all the technical discussion about PEDS and the banter about why athletes do it and how it’s just part of sport and our world and maybe we have to accept it, Sir Winston’s words lend a perspective that is sadly neglected, and surely foreign to the guilty parties:
“At the lychgate we may all pass our own conduct and our own judgments under a searching review. It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events. In one phase men seem to have been right, in another they seem to have been wrong. Then again, a few years later, when the perspective of time has lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion. There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the Fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.”
All right, so half of you are LYAO and markhhj is ROTF LHAO and calling out to his wife that DrJay’s gone daft quoting the fat old stodgy cigar smoking PM on the Board. I’m not one to run around quoting Voltaire and Shakespeare, but I thought this was great food for thought when I first read it years ago and still do. Always try to do right and you should be able to hold your head up, no matter what happens. I could commit Medicare fraud to make more money. I could lie to my kids and tell them I was state champion. Tafnut could give out more A’s for a price. GH could embezzle from the TAFNEWS coffers. Every damn 7-11 worker could steal a candy bar and a few gallons of gas each shift. The bra saleswomen at Dillards could all put on a piece of merchandise before going home. A lot of people do that shit. It looks like JG and FL have done their version of it and it’s just plain WRONG. End of story. They do not march in the ranks of honour. I hope they can look themselves in the mirror tonight and in ten and twenty years, and that they can look their children and grandchildren in the eye and feel good as they lie about their innocence. I couldn’t.
I wish the harsh measures Zatopek proposed on the “Toward a different view of our sport” thread would come to pass. It’s been almost 20 years since Ben Johnson was caught and I see little trend toward acceptance of PEDS. I hope we never accept PEDS use as OK once “the perspective of time has lengthened.”
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Winston Churchill's 1940 quote about PEDS users
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Winston Churchill's 1940 quote about PEDS users
I agree with every word you say Dr. Jay.
For me the best possible outcome in this would be for one of them to tell the truth. I don't care if it is a for a mulitmillion dollar book deal either. Just tell the GD truth. NOW. Not after you have tried every other excuse in the book a la Kelli White. The day PEDS are okay in athletics is the day it loses my support.
Do they award TAFNies posthumously? Maybe we could get a couple of his descendents to come over and accept it on his behalf. Or maybe the Queen. I mean, everyone could see that knighthood thing coming, what with him saving the British Isles and all. But a TAFNY? Who would have thought it! :wink:
Good post Dr.Jay and good words/sentiment to live by. I'm reminded of a few Mark Twain quotes:
"When in doubt, tell the truth." and "Always do right. That will gratify some of the people, and astonish the rest." and, finally (no pun intended): "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."
I agree wholeheartedly mojo. An honest apology could go a long way, I think the lying bothers me worse than the cheating (and that bothers me a great deal). I kept wanting to give Gatlin and Landis the benefit of the doubt, but the more I read about how the tests work and the details of the results the more depressed I've become. As you so succintly and correctly state, "Just tell the GD truth. NOW."
OK, "calling out to his S.O. blah, blah, blah". Or "calling out to his cat Flopster blah, blah, blah".
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