Family Matters...and Marijuana

Some really big news came out this week: Michael Phelps admitted to smoking dope.

Maybe I’m just numb to this sort of thing, but come on people! Is this really news? It fits the template of athletic elites behaving badly perfectly! In fact, it fits the template of celebrities behaving badly. And the template of the materially successful behaving badly too! So why are people upset? Or to put it more accurately in this case, why is it such big news that it's not big news ("shrugs" and "perspective" are common themes in reports, but there is still a regular feeding frenzy around the event)?

Remember, now, that Phelps is one of the most decorated Olympians in modern history…and that his much-sought endorsement went not to Wheaties but to Kellogg’s Frosted Corn Flakes. But before he made Olympic history with 8 gold medals in 2008 (does anybody doubt that there are too many separate swimming events?), he ate like no athlete should—pizza and eggs galore, he seemed to have no concern whatsoever for the volume of fat and cholesterol he consumed (not that that's a bad thing--it just isn't very "correct"). Everybody knew we had a live one on quite a while ago. So why is there angst?

No less than Kathleen Parker argues that the problem is we’ve made marijuana illegal and we shouldn’t have. Despite Parker’s terrible treatment of Sarah Palin (I’m still not over that!), I’ll grudgingly agree that it might be better to have possession and use of the popular weed classed a misdemeanor rather than a felony, but surely this won’t explain what’s at the heart of the matter? Why would people be upset about it at all?

The reason, I think, has to do largely with the concept of “role models”. The theory goes that since children tend to be fascinated by sports, they’ll also tend to emulate the behavior of high-profile athletes. In practice, however, I would dare to guess that it’s somewhat different: parents, frustrated by the lack of regard their children (often teenagers) show for them, hope against hope that they’ll somehow learn good behavior from the people they admire. Perhaps the hope isn’t wrong, but having any serious expectation that it will work out that way is a serious abdication of parental responsibility.

Parents cannot make their children do good—and even if they could, it would be unwise for them to exercise such control over their progeny. At least one of the goals of good parenting is training children to be self-regulating and responsible people, as well as law-abiding and peace-loving citizens. Children will learn that best from the people they see most often. Against every conceivable appearance, children still get most of their primary impressions about life from their parents.

Is it too much to ask that sports be about sport? We want to see Phelps win the gold, of course, partly because we like to see Americans win, but also in part because we like to see sports played well. But sports cannot stand for all that is good and right; certainly athletes will fail just a we all periodically fail. So let’s avoid projecting our own responsibilities for the moral upbringing of children onto athletes and celebrities and get on with the business of life. If we do, I daresay the dollar value of Phelps’s picture on a box of cereal will plummet significantly. It’s up to us.

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