Welcome, Ven a gozar!

Wow, am I having a problem with the integrity issues this week! Two of the blogs on my blogroll to the right, sonalismrules, and heroworkshop, share some pretty strong feelings about integrity. Both of them incidentally over the India verses Australia Cricket test match (?) this week. The match definitely ups the visibility of world class athletes’ and starts to question the status they hold, referees too. This problem is also going lower down in sports in the last months.

While the big news here in the US has been around steroids, Marion Jones, and Floyd Landis seem to hold the spotlight there. Some athletes did not learn anything, or thought they were immune to normal human expectations. Baseball once again is having its already shaky reputation dragged through baseball mud once again with widespread steroid use reported. In late December Florida State college came under the spotlight for group test cheating where as many as twenty athletes may be involved.

Integrity seems to be the issue at hand. I am grappling with the word integrity and I can understand why it is defined with a standard definition, a conceptual view, and a philosophical view. It seems we all have an idea of what integrity should be, but we have different thoughts on how and when it applies.

As a poker player, I have sat with some pretty immoral people. I have seen people who are willing to cheat me, but if they give me their word on something it is as good as gold. I have seen other players give their word, and take any advantage they can to ensure they get what they want. Both types of people act with integrity in their dealings. The biggest difference between them is one type of player goes by the general rule of what is right, and the second argues over what was agreed upon.

Obvious integrity examples for me are in presidential politics. I watched Richard Nixon state he was not a thief. I saw Bill Clinton adamantly claim he did not have sex with a certain woman. The current president has been caught making claims that have shown to be not quite true. In their view they all acted with integrity, in the view of their public they acted with something less.

In the world I was brought up in, the value I was taught that is most important is integrity. I was once asked by a close friend to lie for him, saving him from a serious problem. It was a simple lie, and no one would have known. My integrity would not have been impugned if I had agreed. Well, that is not really true, for I would have known. In the end of all things integrity is one of the things no one can take from me. I can only give it away, and I refuse.

In the current state of sports, people are willing to give up everything for the money. How much money do these people need to accumulate before they can like who they see in the mirror? How much money is needed before a family member, or friend can look at someone who is a liar, and a cheat decide it is okay because they made enough money that they are beyond it all now.

In the stories making the media today, these are not little things that someone was caught doing, or lying about. In the case of Cricket, a whole nation now has their integrity drawn into question due to the act of a few people. India is outraged because they have been wrongly cheated out of something they have every right to.

What is done, can not be undone, in the near future at any rate. No amount of reparation will ever undo the sting of what has been done. No amount of sorry will ever fix the damage done to Cricket, and other sports too. Like it or not, now the integrity of a country - all the way down to an individual - is no longer on the line. In the eyes of many in the world it has been lost, and may possibly never be regained. Was it worth it, I would not do it?

Comments (1) Jan 09 2008