(U-WIRE) U. Massachusetts-Amherst - Charles Barkley, retired NBA star, may have been right when he said, I am not a role model.
Certainly he made a good point, implying that professional athletes are not in charge of raising the youth of America. His statement was controversial: Don't public figures have some obligation to be upstanding citizens? They are on TV and radio, in the newspapers and plastered all over the Internet. It almost seems inevitable for young minds to not look up to these people. After all, they look up to everybody.
But everywhere you turn, public figures, leaders in their respective field, are constantly letting us down.
Professional athletics is usually the 'go-to' on this issue. And lately, unfortunately, the stars of the field, court and ice haven't countered the stereotype.
I'm pretty sure Don Zimmer is still picking grass out of his teeth from when Pedro Martinez tossed the 72 year-old Yankee coach to the ground, but then again maybe Zimmer shouldn't have charged like a Pamplonian bull. Hockey player, Danny Heatley, last season's Rookie of the Year in the NHL, will face vehicular homicide charges after killing a fellow teammate when he lost control of his Ferrari he was driving recklessly. Then, of course, there is Kobe. Whether he is guilty or not, over the next year, more fans will see Kobe Bryant entering a courtroom than entering the Staples Center.
But it is not just athletics. It is hard to find a good leader anywhere. Even a form of our culture supposedly rooted in peace and charity is struggling: organized religion. The Roman Catholic Church has just started on the long road of recovery from a scandal strong enough to crack stained glass. In Boston alone, 500 people claimed to have been sexually abused by priests; entire families were taken advantage of by men into whom they put their utmost faith. It cost the Archdiocese of Boston $85 million to stitch up that wound.
Speaking of putting faith in men, politics has produced some swell role models in recent years. President Bush Jr. is sure doing a fine job of proving politicians are honest, hard-working men who are always looking out for their constituents. Yet, there are no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, thousands of American jobs are lost each month and our national deficit is growing at an exponential rate.
But hey, if you ask Bush (or watch Fox News), everything is fine. And maybe George W. is getting a bad rap. Certainly Bill Clinton wasn't the picture of morality, but at least when Clinton lied, it didn't cost the lives of hundreds of U.S. soldiers.
Athletics. Religion. Politics. All are producers of public figures and potential role models - and all have major issues.
How about the business world? There has to be some honest business leaders, true representatives of what it means to make it in this country.
Wishful thinking.
Enron started off the marathon of high profile corporate crimes. Martha Stewart decided to run a stretch. And on Tuesday, Putnam Investments got into the thick of things. Putnam, the fifth largest mutual fund company in the nation, faces fraud charges for engaging in market timing, an investing method all but made illegal in the trading business. Account managers, put in charge of millions of dollars in state-worker pension money and family college tuition funds, skimmed off the top to make themselves some extra cash. It is sad - hard-working families being burned by trusted business officials.
It may be a harsh generalization to say all popular leaders are failing at setting a good example. Surely, there are some using their status to make a positive influence; Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics is one example. Also, just recently, entertainer P. Diddy raised over $2 million for children's charities. Actor Paul Newman is constantly using his money to help those less fortunate. And despite the staggering statistics in Boston, more priests are honest people than sex offenders.
However, there are a select few that ruin it for the bunch, and they happen to be extremely popular. Barkley was right: Athletes aren't role models. Neither are political or business leaders, or at least, they shouldn't be.
There are millions of other people who represent success in this country; they work as teachers, nurses, firefighters and engineers - the true American Dream. But they don't have sneaker contracts, insider trading information or a vested interest in Middle-Eastern oil reserves. They don't have their own Internet sites; they aren't featured on page six and they aren't campaigning for re-election.
Newspapers don't run full page spreads on them. Television stations don't drool over them. They are unmarketable castaways of society. True role models, but forgotten because they don't sell. Or should I say: lie, cheat and steal.
- Information from the Boston Globe was used in this column.
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Peter Trovato
