go for the glory...chance the shame

I am so looking forward to 8/8/08. I really love watching the Olympics. It's funny how the Olympics can make the most boring sport have value to me. However (and you knew there'd be a "however) I am just not understanding how it comes to be that an athlete tests positive for a "banned" drug. I woke this morning to my alarm clock telling me that an athlete has tested positive for a stimulant. As a pharmacist I see the matter pretty black and white. One of two things happens here: she either knew she had taken the drug OR she didn't...and either way I have no sympathy...here's why: Okay, so say she knew. Well this is a no-brainer because she was trying to trick the tests. Maybe she thought she had stopped taking the drug soon enough to pass or perhaps she took something else to assumingly "mask" the illegal drug. Or maybe she took something similar to the illegal drug that isn't supposed to be detected. Anyway, no sympathy here obviously. This leads me to the second option...she didn't know she took it. Well, this gets me because here is a girl who has probably trained her whole life for the goal of going to the Olympics. She is diligent enough to train 24/7 and probably give up her life otherwise to attain this goal AND SHE DOESN'T KNOW THE INGREDIENTS OF WHAT SHE IS PUTTING IN HER PRECIOUS BODY. I must tell you that the reports say that the positive test could be as simple as she took the wrong cough medicine. However, I just feel sure that somewhere in our great internet world (if not personally given to each and every olympic athlete) there is a list of legal medicines that will show up on these drug tests. I mean the testing is an exact science and I'm sure they tell everyone how to go by the rules. We have this idea that these athletes are folks just like us but at this point they are groomed to represent our country. They have resources that everyday athletes don't. I'm pretty sure they have doctors for each need, trainers for every weakness, mentors for every question..all available to help them represent our country well. Why chance the shame?

Explaining the Pledge for anyone who hasn't really thought about it much

I have always considered myself pretty patriotic. Even though my Daddy sacrificed two years of his life for our country (and not by choice, at the time), he has lived his own version of the American Dream. Born and raised fairly poor, I think he would agree that America has been good to him. Having said that, I never realized how much Daddy being a Vietnam veteran influenced me until I had a conversation about the war in Iraq with a muslim American I knew whose mom was originally from Pakistan. Truthfully, I ended the conversation pretty soon by simply telling him about my Daddy and telling him that I was SURE that he and I were not going to agree on the subject. No hard feelings.

Now, I am no historian (and honestly never have been much for history as a subject) and certainly no expert on America or our affairs. However, with all the controversy over being able to say the Pledge of Allegiance, over who is willing to say the Pledge, over who will put their hand on their heart during the Pledge, and the words in the Pledge, I felt compelled to analyze our Pledge. So after looking up a few of it's vital words in the dictionary, I can whole-heartily recite, believe, and live by our Pledge:

I give my binding promise to support, be loyal, and devoted to the flag, as a symbol representing the United States of America. And to my country (where the supreme power rests in the body of citizens who get to vote for representatives to be responsible to them) which the flag represents. We are one nation (like it or not), under God (whomever your God may be, if you don't believe in God then these words shouldn't matter to you), united and unified, with freedom and the power of choice and fairness as deserved to everyone.

If any American can't look past our many flaws as a nation to still love our country, then I can only have pity on their narrow-mindedness. We all go through life loving things, situations, and people who are far from perfect...give America a break. Before anyone sees only the bad of our country they need to read up on the good in our country, now and in history. United we stand, divided we fall. We are a country of freedom...and that means the freedom to do good or to do bad, to be an asset to society or a burden to society, to be good or to be evil. Perhaps some of the imperfections in our America come from freedoms misused or abused. Now whose fault is that? Who can make things better?

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, everyone