Lance Armstrong....what should we take away?

First off, any person in the world, America especially is guilty of this, that puts a person on the pedestal of a hero for physical capability is completely misguided. Physical talent is nothing more than a capitalization on a God given capability, and while admirable, it is certainly not the end-all-be-all quality of a hero. Let's look at the definition of "hero", according to Webster it is:

a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability

b : an illustrious warrior

c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities

d : one who shows great courage"

So according to that definition you could certainly say he was admired for his achievements, but noble qualities, let's look closely. While this is a man who showed great talent, it is now shadowed by the possibility the achievement was garnered by illegal means, if we look at character and nobility, well, there is much to be desired. People seem to forget that when Mr. Armstrong had Testicular Cancer, his companion at the time, Cheryl Crow, stood beside him. Shortly after he recovered and she had cancer, he left her. So is that noble, is that a character attribute that is admirable? And in relation to cancer, I have long heard it said how tremendous he acted when faced with cancer, that brings up another question - what do we expect cancer diagnosis to instill, an imminent wanting of death and anything else is heroic? I would argue most if not all individuals that are diagnosed with cancer are 'survivors or heroic' by those standards, none of them want to die.

Now you may look to the Armstrong Livestrong campaign as something admirable, and that is fine as they say 80% of their profit goes to cancer patients, but that at minimum is debatable and leaves another 20% of profit that is collected as payment. Whatever you think of Lance Armstrong you must consider yourself if his actions were 'heroic'. A hero in my eyes is someone who has extreme nobility of character and faces obstacles that show complete selflessness. Nothing else - and the term is thrown out far to nonchalantly.

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