Thankful: For Integrity

Do you swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth, and

nothing but the truth, 

so help me God.

~Witness's Oath

My father was a big fan of the truth.  He told me that a person's word - his/her truthfulness - was the most important part of their character.  He said that my integrity was based on my honesty - on my ability to face up to and live the truth.  He also told me that no matter how look it took, the truth would always come out eventually. There were times growing up when I didn't want to hear what he had to say, but through the years I have come to realize that those lessons were the finest counsel he ever gave to me.

 
Through the years of his sports career, I have never had an opinion one way or the other about Lance Armstrong.  I am not a cyclist, and have never been a fan of the sport of cycling.  Yes, I heard the news of victory after victory at the Tour de France, but I never thought much about him one way or the other.  He seemed a pleasant-enough fellow, and his story of over-coming cancer was certainly inspiring.

Over the years, the accusations of doping by Mr. Armstrong never seemed to die away.  His vehement denials seemed sincere enough.  As my father said, however, the truth does eventually rise to the surface, and that is certainly true in the case of Lance Armstrong.  Evidence painstakingly gathered by Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, laid bare the moral decay of Mr. Armstrong and his cronies and their blood doping scheme.  Stripped of every title he has earned after years and years of deception and lying, Armstrong finally decided that he would come clean and tell the truth on a television show with Oprah Winfrey.

Problem is - when you have lied, cheated, deceived and schemed for most of your adult life, you come to the place where you wouldn't know the truth if it slapped you in the face.  The "confession" that Armstrong told to Oprah is the one he wants us to believe.  Is it the truth?  USADA's Tygart says, no, it's just more lies.  When one of his former teammates says, "I wouldn't believe a thing that comes out of his mouth anymore," then chances are, we probably shouldn't either.