Selective Roid Rage

An item in today's new notes that already-banned Olympic cyclist, Tammy Thompson, has been convicted of perjury in relation to a sports setroids investigation. The most noteworth part of the story was never mentioned -- discoverable only because the story included a photo; Thompson is white.

Previous convictions seem all to have been of black athletes -- Barry Bond, Marion Jones, and Dale Stubblefield. While white male, Roger Clemens, is feted by Congress even as he apparantly blatantly perjures himself before them, black and women athletes appear in courtrooms and prisons. Senators line up for Clemens' autograph while jailers pat down incarcerated monority athletes.

To watch any adults behave like star-struck little boys vying for attention from an overgrown adolescent whose only claim to fame is that he has spent his adult life playing a child's game is, alone, an embarrassing indictment of the values and maturity of too much of our society. To watch members of Congress, the highest officials of our nation do it is appalling and humiliating.

Add to that the blatant racism and sexism implicit in how this is all unwinding and one has to wonder if there's any hope for us.