Call me nuanced, but I don't recall Michael Phelps agreeing to be a role model. I googled it and came up with nothing except other people volunteering Mr. Phelps to be a role model.
There's a lot of discussion about Mr. Phelps ever since a picture of him allegedly smoking cannabis from a 'bong' surfaced a week ago. Now he's apologizing for letting everyone down, for making 'a mistake.' Further, sponsors like Kellogg are dropping him for his alleged behavior, because it doesn't reflect the 'role models' that Kelloggs wants to associate with. The public outcry is over Mr. Phelps failing to provide a good 'role model' for our children (since all drug law seems to revolve around children) by making this 'mistake.'
It's a pretty common 'mistake' - on any given year, close to 10% of the U.S. population, by most estimates, at least tries cannabis. While the numbers don't actually pan out, it would appear that everyone in the U.S. tries marijuana every decade. However, this isn't true because of repeat users. Or people repeating their 'mistakes,' if you will.
Yet somehow, we expect Michael Phelps to be immune to this, or at least above it. The reaction to this incident indicates a level of hypocrisy and a level of tyrannical thinking in our society - a significant portion of our population doesn't expect Mr. Phelps to act his age, or like a normal human who can succumb to peer pressure, or experiment, or enjoy themselves with something the majority considers taboo. Instead, a large portion of our society expects perfection from Mr. Phelps, like he's a contemporary Jesus.
Sorry, Mr. Phelps, but you're no Jesus. Not trying to knock Mr. Phelps - he's a great swimmer. Actually, he's an amazing athlete. Arguably one of the best swimmers, ever. That is what he trained to be. What he did not train to be is a role model for our children - we chose that position for him. He did not train to be a saint - we've got a Pope and bishops and so on who train for that. He did not train to be more than human - and so the only reasonable thing to expect from him is to act like a human.
He's a swimmer, people. He's an athlete. Expecting him not to be human is asinine. And, considering that more people die from alcohol than cannabis, until any athlete from any sport is cited as making a mistake from imbibing booze, I refuse to consider smoking cannabis a 'mistake.' The true 'mistake' here is unreasonable expectations, and a phony addiction to the concept that cannabis is somehow worse (psychologically, physically, socially) than alcohol, when the reverse is true.
In fact, the only way in which cannabis is worse than alcohol is by legal and judgmental standards, which points more to their flawed nature, rather than to perceived flaws in people who choose to use cannabis.
Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek