Have you been watching the Olympics? Have you heard about the Chinese gymnastic team of young girls? How old do you think they are? It has been reported that the Chinese government takes these little girls from the earliest ages and puts them into a military style of barracks and indoctrinates them into their sport. They don’t see their home or their parents. One little girl, when asked by a reporter if her parents had seen her perform, replied that she didn’t know. She hadn’t seen them. Winning medals is apparently so important to the Chinese communists that cheating is perfectly okay. The end justifies the means. I am sure the Chinese are not alone in their practices. I will not even discuss the judging by the Chinese officials except to say that it is pathetic.
I have also been watching the Little League World Series of late. Call me crazy but I find twelve and thirteen year olds with beards a little disconcerting. I suppose it is plausible that some are early to mature but I remain a bit skeptical.
Some professional athletes seem bent on self destruction with the use of performance enhancing drugs in violation of all rules. They believe it gives them an edge over the competition. Do they not realize that the unfair edge they think they get comes with a very high price? Just ask Lyle Alzedo. How about the pro wrestler who killed his family while ripped on drugs? How does their use of these enhancers affect the other members of their teams who play by the rules? This particular form of cheating seems to be somewhat accepted by the ownership of pro teams because the souped up athletes draw more fans to the games. Baseball fans love to see home runs. Football fans love to see the big hits. Team owners love to see huge box offices and big TV contracts. Any way you look at it, any way you try to justify it, it is still cheating.
With all the cheating going on, is it any wonder that students would cheat on their school work? They see the results of cheating and that the cheaters seem to win. Why not get a good grade? Why not go to the internet and download the test and the answers?
Well I have some thoughts for those out there who cheat. Would you like to have your surgeon graduate from school as a cheat? Would you like it if your attorney who is defending you in a big case is only there because he cheated to get his law degree?
If you would cheat to win a Little League game when would you not cheat? If you would cheat on your wife while she is suffering from cancer, when would you not cheat? If you would cheat in the Oval Office of the White House with a young impressionable intern, when would you not cheat? If, as a country, you would cheat to win gold medals, when would you not cheat? Finally if you would cheat to win an election, when would you not cheat?
I am reminded of the old country song that goes something like this. “Your cheatin’ heart will make you weep. You’ll cry and cry and try to sleep, but sleep won’t come, the whole night through. Your cheatin heart will tell on you.” Cheaters never prosper.
Ron Scarbro August 18, 2008
Posts
1 comment:
I can remember Jeri teaching Jr. high Sunday school and asking the kids what they would do if they received the wrong change at the check out counter. Most said that they would keep the money and say nothing. It was the checker's fault and therefore it was theirs to keep. Same for finding money or any lost object. Few would spend time trying to find the owner. It is a sad commentary on moral ethics being taught at home or school.
Of course, later in life we find these same kids as adults with the same mentality. I found this every day when I was doing tax audits. Good people did not have any qualms about cheating on their tax returns because, hey, it’s the government, they are not spending their tax dollars the way they want, or the Government waste most of it, or they are protesting what ever war we are in. It ranges - the cheating – from outright tax protesting and not filling returns, to over reporting expense and under reporting income, to tweaking their tax returns so that they are only paying what they consider a fair tax. Consequently the honest taxpayer pays at a higher rate because not enough money is coming in. If everyone paid their fair share the government would be awash in money and the rates would go down. My vote is for a national sales tax that would bring in all the non-filers, all the ones involved in the underground economy, all the illegal trade and make null and void the efforts to cheat and remove all the dubious deductions.
Unfortunately, we live in times where man is more concerned about himself and cares little about his neighbor. The number of selfish self-centered people far out number the ones who truly care about others and are involved in sacrificial giving and serving. And it will remain this way until the end times when Christ returns to take over.
Mike Query 08-23-08
Post a Comment