Lance Armstrong has been under great scrutiny recently due to his admitted use of performance enhancing drugs. After his titles were stripped people wondered why he would come forward and apologize. I wonder the same thing since Americans don't have to forgive to forget. Americans just forget. Last summer at the Democratic Naitonal Convention who was upheld, praised and worshipped as such an amazing man and was recently recognized as father of the year: former President Bill Clinton. Does anyone remember the issue that should have tarnished his reputation? Let me throw some names out and see if it jogs your memory: Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky. Yes there were that many that the public knows about; how many didn't come forward. Upstanding man that all these women(from totally different times and places) conspired against, lecherous oaf, or predator? It doesn't matter because America has forgotten all of it.
Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens footbal team. This Super Bowl will be his last. He will retire as a possible Super Bowl Champion. He is being heralded as a one of the greatest player of all time and his story is the big headline of big game. Does anyone recall the 2000 Super Bowl? Ray attended as a fan in the stands as his team didn't make it to the big game that year. After doing an autograph appearance at a sporting goods store and then the game, Ray and his friends head to a bar to party where at 4am a drunken brawl breaks out with another group from the bar. Ray is seen throwing a punch, 2 people magically end up stabbed to death with a knife that came from the store where Ray had signed autographs that day. Blood from the victims is magically found in Ray's limo, witnesses see people exit the same limo at different times of night in different places throwing away bags of things in dumpsters. Ray Lewis and 2 friends are charged with the crime and it goes through a trial where witnesses now claim they can't remember or can't be sure about a thing they saw. Charges against Lewis are totally dismissed and the friends are acquitted. So I guess no one really committed that crime. Families of the victims bring civil suits against Ray Lewis and settle for undisclosed amounts. And America forgets and puts him on a pedestal.
Maybe the majority of America is better than I am. Maybe I should be more forgiving and forgetting and let bygones be bygones. Perhaps it is a fault in myself that I remember these tiny flaws and mistakes. But maybe if more Americans paid attention and retained information we would be more wary of characters who could come back into the spotlight and fool us again. Maybe we could spot patterns in the world that point to trouble brewing and a major storm on the horizon. Let me go off the people track for a moment and jog some memories about attacks on Americans/America in the past.
Terrorist groups don't only plan a single large attack, execute and then disappear. Terrorist groups poke and tease with smaller attacks and actions to judge the security in place and guage the reaction of the US Government. They judge those reactions, actions, and security systems and adjust their training and plans based upon what they learn each time. September 11, 2001 didn't just magically happen. There were multiple events leading up to it: embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, multiple cases of borders being tested for entry (legal and illegal) to our country, USS Cole bombing in 2000. 9-11-01 was so strong it made a lasting impact on America's memory, but if we could remember how the terrorists tested and tried different actions leading up to that day maybe we would pay more attention to the Benghazi embassy attack, to the hostages taken in Algeria, and to the increasing strength of the Taliban in northern Mali (Be sure to giggle when a presidential canidate mentions Mali and say most americans think that is the president's daughter). It would cause me less concern if I bought into the dumbing down of America and I would just forget too. Then a few months or a year from now when the big terrorist event happens I could be as surprised and appalled as everyone else and not be the "told you so". I do believe we should be positive and supportive of people who change or try to change their ways, but is it bad to still remember their past and use it to temper the adoration given to them in the present. It is right to move on with our lives as bad things happen around the world, but as humans given the ability to remember it is also our responsibility to observe patterns, take note, and connect them to past events to see possible future events.
This is part of a rant series I am writing to get a few things off my chest. I am up on my soapbox for the first few posts of 2013. Sorry. I have been thinking about doing a few of these for a while and am hoping that once I write them they will be off my mind. Heavy stuff. Light hearted commentary on parenting and life will return in February.
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