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Why My Generation Doesn’t Care About Performance Enhancement

David Meany

Steroids in sports might come as a big shock to most of America, but not to
my generation. Here’s why. When it comes to sports stars, Hollywood celebrities,
and political leaders, my generation (I’m 18 years old) has very low expectations. Identifies the topic,
It’s not that we’re cynical or completely jaded; it’s just that we don’t hold these purpose, angle, and
thesis.
people up as role models. We don’t really care if their morals are pure. We would
say that we’re simply realistic, that we see the world as it is. These celebrities—
politicians, movie and TV stars, and, yes, sports figures—do whatever it takes to
get ahead. The rest of us are different.
Let me back up just a little. I’m a huge baseball fan and always have been.
I love baseball’s history, in fact, all of sports history. Way back in grade school,
when it was time to do a book report, I’d find a sports biography: Babe Ruth, Cal
Ripken, Babe Didrikson, Roy Campanella, Joe Namath, Julius “Dr. J” Erving. Even
nonhuman sports stars, like Sea Biscuit and Dan Patch, made great reads and
reports. I grew up obsessed with Cal Ripken and his quest to break Lou Gehrig’s
record for consecutive games played. When I was younger and had more time,
I could tell you the starting lineup and batting order for every Major League
baseball team. So, yes, I was a total baseball nerd.
So now Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have been caught shooting up,
or creaming up, or doing whatever athletes do nowadays to get those steroids Explains the current
issue and reviews
into their systems and build muscle, giving them strength and stamina that the ongoing
no steroid-free human could ever hope for. Talking heads on ESPN express conversation.
outrage (Bryant and Quinn). Sports radio personalities howl in disgust. Even
eggheads like commentator George Will moan about a “stain on baseball” (A31).
Meanwhile, the Mitchell Report, a tell-all treatise written for the Commissioner
of Baseball, says that investigations are “critical to effectively identifying and
disciplining players who continue to violate Major League Baseball’s rules and
policies” (286).
And you know what, I don’t care, and most of my generation doesn’t care
because we’re more realistic than older generations. Some might say we’re more
cynical, but it’s a question of expectations. We expect our celebrities and leaders
to have low ethical standards.

continued
164 CHAPTER 10  Commentaries
Uses reasoning and
examples to support
his argument.
Clarifies and qualifies
his position.
Concludes by
restating the main
point.
Having low ethical standards, doing whatever it takes, that’s how people
get to be prominent figures in the first place. A person still has to work hard,
but a person has to be willing to succeed “at any cost” if they want to really
make it big. Look at our recent presidents and members of Congress. You
can’t stay out of the gutter and make it through an election successfully.
Barack Obama and John McCain tried, but they ended up slinging the mud.
Look at our Hollywood celebrities, like Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake, and
Lindsay Lohan. Sure, they have talent, but lots of people have talent, maybe
even more talent than the stars who “make it.” But not everyone has the will
to succeed at any cost. That’s how people get to be really successful. They’re
not normal people. Look what happens to celebrities between films or con-
certs: they’re exposed as drug-using, law-breaking creeps. A little sunshine
reveals some very dark corners.
I don’t know if it’s always been that way, or if scandals are just more out in
the open these days. The Internet and other never-ending news shows have
made it easier to uncover celebrity secrets, and harder to maintain the myth that
those who have made it got there fair and square. We know better. I think we’re
just a little more realistic than people were a generation back.
Americans of my generation just don’t expect their sports figures,
Hollywood celebrities, and political leaders to be pure and free from the taint of
scandal and unfair play. We know that these people probably abide by the credo
that “If you’re not cheatin’, you’re not trying.” These people are not our heroes
and don’t deserve to be. They know it, and we know it.
I’m not saying we are a cynical generation, just that we are cynical
about one thing in particular: celebrities of all kinds. When it comes to how
we expect ourselves to behave, our standards are as high as any genera-
tion’s. We expect ourselves, for the most part, to abide by common decency
and commonsense values. My friends and I (and most of my generation)
believe in fair play and honesty, and we expect the same from the people
we have to deal with. For example, we play by the rules (most of us) when it
comes to academics, too. Most of us don’t cheat; most of us look down on
people who do.
I’m talking about the people who really make it big. I don’t trust them. I
don’t look up to them to help me figure out how to live my life. They’re not my
heroes, and that’s just fine with me. It’s just the way America works right now.
We look elsewhere to find out how to live. We’re pretty smart that way. I think
we’re a little more savvy about these things than previous celebrity-worshipping
generations of Americans.
 Inventing Your Commentary’s Content 165

Works Cited

Bryant, Howard, and T.J. Quinn. “Has MLB Changed Since the Mitchell
Report?” ESPN, 4 Mar. 2008, espn.go.com/videohub/video/
clip?id=3765695&categoryid=0.
Mitchell, George. Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent
Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing
Substances by Players in Major League Baseball. Office of the Commissioner of
Baseball, 2007.
Will, George. “A Stain on Baseball.” The Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2004, p. A31.

Inventing Your Commentary’s Content

To start, you need a good topic. Commentaries are usually written in response to 10.1   invent the
events that are currently happening. So watch the news, read Web sites, or search content of your
commentary by
newspapers and magazines to find an event or issue that people are talking about.
listening carefully.
Choose a topic you personally care about so that you can contribute your own views
to the general discussion.

Inquiring: Finding Out What You Already Know

A great way to get your ideas out there is to play the Believing and Doubting Game, which
can help you see different sides of an issue and find an angle that is uniquely your own:

Believing.  Begin by studying one side of your topic from the perspective of a true be-
liever. Assume that this side is completely correct and that all assertions—even if they
are contradictory—are valid. Then freewrite or brainstorm for five minutes to figure
out what kinds of arguments a true believer might come up with. What evidence might
support this side of the argument? When would the believer’s side make the most
sense? Why is this argument so obvious to someone who already believes it to be true?

Doubting.  Do another five-minute freewrite or brainstorm in which you look for

weaknesses in the believer’s argument that you could exploit. What are you most
skeptical about? What kinds of weaknesses do people tend to overlook with this is-
sue? If you wanted to undermine what others believe, what would you point to? What
would be the worst possible aftereffects if people were wrong about this issue or they
failed in some way? If you did exactly what the believers think should be done, what
unintended consequences might occur?

Synthesizing.  Finally, put the true believer and the true doubter at the two ends of a
spectrum and figure out where you personally stand on this issue. After believing and
then doubting, you will better understand both sides of the issue. You should also be