illustration by steed media service

On August 4, 2007 San Diego Padres pitcher Clay Hensley served up a 2-1 fastball that Barry Bonds tattooed into the left center field bleachers to tie Hank Aaron's MLB record of 755 career home runs. Rightly or wrongly, Bond's achievement will be met with inordinate amounts of criticism, disdain, and antipathy. However, the greater issue is not whether Bond's has knowingly or unknowingly benefited from performance-enhancing substances, but how tunnel-visioned and hypocritical our nation and our media can be.

Barry Lamar Bonds is not a criminal. He is an immensely talented and correspondingly arrogant professional athlete whose ability to belt baseballs out of stadiums may have been prolonged via "controversial" means. He may have lied to a nation about "the cream and the clear" but did anyone get maimed, murdered or mutilated?

Imagine if the same scrutiny used in the unofficial yet public trial of Bonds was applied to the war in Iraq and the handling of Hurricane Katrina. George Walker Bush along with his henchmen, Dick, Don, and Condi lied to the American people about Osama, Saddam, and Sept.11. Hmmm . were any lives lost because of those truth-challenged positions?

Many sports fans think that Bond's achievements should be met with scorn rather than applause, but consider this. Does Bunnatine Greenhouse think Dick Cheney and his Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, deserve a pat on the back? Do the families of the 30,000 and counting, American military casualties want to high-five Don Rumsfeld as he rounds the bases? Do the 65,000 plus Iraqi civilians who have died while we were "liberating" them think Condoleezza Rice deserves a "you go, girl"?

I have no agenda to defend Barry Bonds but let's re-evaluate what actually deserves condemnation! If Bonds is a "cheater" what adjectives apply to individuals who put lives at stake simply to make money and gain political capital? - g. mcclaren forde

>>Share this article with a friend