Last night, I came across a Real sports story about Kyle Maynard. This is a man with no arms and no legs who still manages to do every single thing I couldn’t do even if I tried (like cage fighting). I can’t say I found the story inspiring but instead intriguing. This was mainly because numerous times during the interview, I almost forgot he had no arms. It was quite strange and at this point I’m willing to explain it away by deciding that since it was 3am my mind wasn’t right.
I always find stories like this a little strange. He spoke of a couple of soldiers he met who saw his first interview on Real Sports and found themselves inspired by his story. They were in a freak accident where a good percentage of their bodies were burned and they no longer felt relevant in this world as a result. Kyle’s story inspired them to get off their asses and do something with their lives. But I doubt many other people had this same reaction. I’d be confident in my assumption that in watching this, most people didn’t think to themselves:
“wow… he has no arms and no legs and he can still do everything he’s ever wanted to do.”
Im sure, for most people, it was more along the lines of:
“wow… I have both arms and both legs and I’ve done nothing with my life.”
I was indifferent about the whole thing until the end when he put the final dagger into the hearts of all the lazy, useless people watching and spoke of his plans to climb Mount Everest. The reporter mocked him subtly and basically told him he probably wouldn’t be able to do such a thing to which Kyle did NOT reply “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” This means he isn’t a Lost fan and thus ended my interest in this person.
Now.
During the end of the broadcast, Bryant Gumble had something to say that bothered me a little bit. He spoke of the Cavaliers being eliminated from the playoffs and how most of the stories around this elimination centered around the fate of Lebron James. He didn’t appreciate that people were ignoring the fact that, given his age and general uselessness on the court, we’ll more than likely never hear from Shaquille O’neal again. He spoke of his better days. His four championships, his charisma but also his lack of championships compared to other centers that have played in the NBA. He felt it was a crime that this man would fade into obscurity in the shadow of Lebron’s “story”. He then stated that in the age of “we’re always watching” and “Youtube” Shaq was one of the few who failed to have the typical celebrity blemish on his record given his good heart and general kindness. This is what bothered me. This almost woke me up because I felt this was wrong and completely misguided.
Fact is, I don’t think we should be forgiving Shaq for the movie Steel.
I know these days we give out “forgiveness” to celebrities like a confused women to her husband when being subjected to not so mild domestic abuse, but this… this is not fair. That movie was a crime and no one involved should ever be forgiven for what they did to us. The costume department, the writers, the actors. They are all at fault. But what are we saying to our children if we go around forgiving people for such things? First, we forgive a man for urinating into the mouth of some poor girl. Now Mr. Gumble is insinuating that we should forget about Steel. I can’t. I won’t.
This sends a bad message. A few weeks ago, I was in a train car and it smelled like hell. I decided to switch cars but couldn’t stand to wait and had to walk through the doors instead. Long story short, I was stopped by a cop and given a ticket even after I told him what my reasoning was. So basically, celebrities can pee on fifteen year olds and make Steel but I can’t remove myself from an uncomfortable situation on a train that I paid to ride?
I shudder to think of what Kyle Maynard can get away with…
