Jan 15th, 2013 · Categories: Culture, Sports · 1 Comment

Thoughts on Lance Armstrong

A lot of the discussion about Lance Armstrong is about ends justifying means, whether he deserves any credit for the LIVESTRONG Foundation, and so on.  Most commentators want to paint him either black or white.  Like most of life, it’s just not that simple:

  • Armstrong is a seriously flawed person who has done dishonest and vicious things – he should be held accountable legally, financially, socially, and morally. 
  • Armstrong started a worthwhile foundation, raised a lot of money for a very good cause, and gave hope to a lot of people – his contributions should be recognized and appreciated. 

The second does not justify the first; the first does not invalidate the second.  He did wrong; he did right.  Me too.  The difference between us is that his worst was worse than mine and his best was better than mine.

Shame on you, Lance Armstrong.  And thanks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Culture, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Thoughts on Lance Armstrong”

  1. Why I Joined the NRA | The Curmudgeon's Progress Says:

    April 29th, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    […] the time of Armstrong’s confession, I briefly commented that he was both a hero and a villain.  His bad deeds didn’t cancel the enormous service […]

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