Chabenda wrote
It's a lot easier to forgive someone who comes clean and confesses of his own accord. Someone who only asks forgiveness once he's been caught is a different kettle of fish. In this instance there has been a lot of money involved. That makes him a criminal. Perhaps it would be easier to forgive him if he did some appropriate jail time, was 'rehabilitated' and paid his debt to society. You may say that he did a heck of a lot of good - so did Adolph Hitler with the construction of the autobahns. It means nothing and seems to be the modus operandi of many criminals (myself included).
Armstrong's not a criminal that I can see - well, not unless he contravened an actual law as opposed to a sporting regulation. I think he's been punished in the correct jurisdiction. His sporting record is in tatters and he's got a life ban from all competitions that fall under the oversight of the USADA. He can't run the NY marathon for example. He can't even run his local athletics club's 10km race. He's also had several other awards and offices withdrawn - eg the freedom of the City of Adelaide. He's also lost millions of dollars in endorsements.
When somebody is accused of a criminal deed we don't insist that they repent, that they come clean. Indeed we'd probably get upset if they did so in an effort to get a lighter sentence, which is similar to what Armstrong's done.
I don't even see that he owes society a debt. I think that society gets what it deserves for it's adoration of celebrities. The idols always have feet of clay.
There's a great line in one of the TV episodes of Inspector Morse. Morse is all cut up at the conclusion of case. It was a sordid business that involved several Oxford dons, the very people that Morse sees as being wiser, better than us, concerned with higher, more important things. His sergeant says to him "Sir, my dad loved football but couldn't stand football players."
Sgt Lewis's dad had it right. The sport is important, but we need to think carefully before investing too much in a particular athlete.
I think the same applies to music as well - love the music, worry a little less about the individual musician.
It's our love of celebrities that is a problem and traps us in these dilemmas.
