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ForsythOpinion
Hero hype
overblown
By Richard Parker
AUSTIN, Texas — For
all his athletic achieve
ments, with or without
doping, cheating, lying
and intimidation, Lance
Armstrong was never a
hero.
Strangely, his confes
sion — after a decade of
being hounded for cheat
ing his way to the top of
his sport and our celebri
ty culture — provides a
kind of opportunity for
all of us to rethink who
we think are heroes. It
seems absurd that we cull
heroes of any sort at all
from the worlds of poli
tics and power, let alone
from sports and entertain
ment. All this raises the
question: Who, really, is
a hero? And do we need
heroes at all?
It is ironic, in the
extreme, that at the same
time that the television
screen carries
Armstrong’s iron-jaw
confession, bereft of at
least a show of remorse,
it also carries the bizarre
story of another alleged
hero, Notre Dame’s
Manti Te’o. However he
became embroiled in the
fake, dead girlfriend
affair, was an iconic hero
really a college kid who
played for a not-so-great
team? It appears that our
definition of a hero has,
indeed, slipped that far.
The very word hero is
derived from the Greek
word of the first century
— and it is almost entire
ly based upon myth. The
hero, to cite Merriam-
Webster, was either leg
endary or divine, or both.
He was an illustrious
warrior on a quest and
appeared in epic poetry
like “The Illiad” or
“Gilgamesh” or “The
Aeneid.”
The hero was Beowulf
destroying the monster,
Grendel. In not so many
words it came down to
this: The hero was never
real. '
Over time, however, it
has become common for
people with fame, money
and power to try to grab
the mantle of demi-god,
and for a simple reason.
Becoming one (or rather,
convincing others that
you are one) invokes
more fame, money and
power.
The trail is littered with
heroes in business, poli
tics, entertainment and
sports who had talent,
yes, but they just wanted
more power, money and
fame. Tiger Woods, John
Edwards, the lions of
Wall Street or Bill
Clinton.
The list is so long we
actually forget who'’s
gone through the cycle of
public contrition and res
toration. I mean who
remembers what Kanye
West, Kobe Bryant, and,
say, Alec Baldwin did?
And why did it even mat
ter?
And, with the help of
our star-struck story-tell
ers in the mass media,
many of us went along
until they did not so
much fall from grace but
were revealed — voila —
to have never been heroic
at all. Instead, they were
just talented mortals with
extraordinary ambition,
which almost always
involves the temptation to
lie, steal or cheat.
The notion that a pro
fessional athlete, who is
hard-wired to do anything
to win at any cost to any
one, could be a leader
ship figure is preposter
ous on its face and has
been all along.
Everybody should just
move on. Armstrong’s
performance in his inter
view was gritty and
determined and part of
the ridiculous cycle of
contrition — and a return
to money, fame and
power. It is trite and pre
dictable as a stopwatch.
And are we not grown
up enough to not need
public heroes? The
mythology of heroism
was originally spun as a
form of both inspiration
and, frankly, propaganda.
And it is exploited as
exactly the latter today.
What if a hero is a
friend who helps you get a
job? Or, a hero is a mother
who raises you or a father
who puts you through col
lege. A hero takes real
risks to save other people,
literally and figuratively.
A hero is someone who
strives day in and day out
to do something meaning
ful — without an ounce of
public recognition.
What if a real hero is
someone who never
becomes famous for his
or her deeds at all? Then
we would know that
those who do are not
heroic at all, just ambi
tious to the point of
exploitative.
As for Lance
Armstrong, he was obvi
ously a determined ath
lete and a highly-com
pensated entertainer, and
that’s all professional ath
letes are.
But no. He was never a
hero. And neither is the
next Lance Armstrong
who is out there, waiting
in the wings.
Richard Parker is a regular
contributor to McClatchy-
Tribune and The New York
Times. Hardy Gest contrib
uted research to this articie.
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Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News
Cagle is back in command
You could safely say that the past
two years were probably not the
best of Casey Cagle’s life.
The lieutenant governor spent
most of the 2011 and 2012 legisla
tive sessions in a state of limbo after
a rebellious faction of Republican
senators passed new rules that
stripped Cagle of his powers to
appoint committees and run the
administrative affairs of the state
Senate.
Although the fight was conducted
largely out of public view, Cagle
stewed for two years as the clique
headed by President Pro Tem
Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, and
Majority Leader Chip Rogers,
R-Woodstock, controlled the upper
chamber.
The turmoil in the Senate made it
harder to conduct legislative busi
ness, a development that was noticed
by the people across the rotunda.
House Speaker David Ralston derid
ed the attempt by Williams and
Rogers to run the Senate, saying:
“The experiment has failed.”
In politics, as in life, things have a
way of turning around. Cagle did a
lot of work behind the scenes and
was in position to benefit from a
recent change in the Senate leader
ship.
Williams first decided not to seek
another term as the president pro
tem, opening up an opportunity for
lawmakers loyal to Cagle. Rogers
then resigned from the Senate to
accept a $150,000-a-year job
arranged by Gov. Nathan Deal with
Georgia Public Broadcasting.
When Republican senators cau
cused in November, they elected a
new leadership team: President Pro
Tem David Shafer, R-Duluth,
Majority Leader Ronnie Chance,
R-Tyrone, and Caucus Chairman
Butch Miller, R-Gainesville. The
new leaders, who are much friendli
er towards Cagle, had new rules
Letter policy
The Forsyth County News welcomes your
opinions on issues of public concern. Letters
must be signed and include full address and a
daytime and evening phone number for verifica
tion. Names and hometowns of letter writers will
be included for publication without exception.
Telephone numbers will not be published.
TOM CRAWFORD
Columnist
written that restore many of the
lieutenant governor’s former pow
ers.
There were a couple of telling
incidents during the opening days of
the 2013 General Assembly session
that demonstrated Cagle was once
again in the driver’s seat.
On the session’s first day, Sen.
Mike Crane, R-Newnan, com
plained bitterly about the new rules
restoring Cagle’s authority and
accused senators of violating their
oaths of office by adopting them.
“Don’t give one person absolute
power, even if you think he’s a good
person,” Crane said, holding up a
roll of yellow crime scene tape to
make his point. The Senate then
voted 42-12 to restore Cagle’s pow
ers. .
Crane received his punishment a
few hours later when the new com
mittee assignments were posted.
Last year, he was a member of such
important committees as education,
finance and banking. This year, he
has been banished to the lonely out
posts of the state and local govern
ment operations, state institutions
and property, and special judiciary
committees.
Other senators who had been part
of the Williams-Rogers rebellion
similarly found themselves demoted
to less prestigious committee
assignments by Cagle and the new
leadership team.
Later in the week, the Senate con
sidered Deal’s proposal to renew a
Medicaid provider fee — also
known as a bed tax — that is
Letters should be limited to 350 words and
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Mail letters to the Forsyth County News, PO.
Box 210, Cumming, GA 30028, fax to (770) 889-
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Kirk Walters The Toledo Blade
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
imposed upon by the state’s hospi
tals.
This fee is important to Georgia’s .
health care community because it
will bring in more than S4OO mil
lion in federal matching funds for
Medicaid.
“I have been informed that 10 to
14 hospitals will be faced with pos
sible closure if the provider fee does
not continue,” Deal said in a speech
to the Georgia Chamber of
Commerce. “These are hospitals
that serve a large number of
Medicaid patients.”
When the fee was first proposed
in 2010, it triggered loud and furi
ous debate in the Senate. While the
bed tax was eventually approved,
the anger and hostility generated by
that close vote was part of the rea
son why Cagle was later stripped of
many of his powers.
On top of that, Grover Norquist,
an anti-tax activist based in
Washington, D.C., was demanding
that Republican senators vote
against this Medicaid fee renewal
because he classified it as a tax
increase.
There was some grumbling and
complaining during three hours of
Senate debate, but the bill renewing
the provider fee passed by an over
whelming 46-9 majority. Cagle and
the members of the Georgia Senate
effectively told Norquist to go stuff
himself.
It was a good first week for the . «
lieutgnant governor. Cagle looked
like a man who was much happier ..
about his own situation and the state
of the world in general. -
Getting revenge on your enemies
will do that for a person.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at
gareport.com that reports on govern- /'
ment and politics in Georgia. He can be
reached at tcrawford@gareport.com.