Michael Phelps Deserves a Spanking, But Not for Getting Caught with Pot
Let's play a game of truth or dare. We'll start with a few easy questions, ones that shouldn't be too tough for you to answer.
How many of you did something stupid when you were younger?
(My guess is there are a lot of you mentally raising your hands while staring at this computer screen -- myself included).
How many of you ever had a few drinks before reaching the magic age of 21?
How many of you have ever tried pot (even if you didn't inhale)?
How many of you have ever gotten behind the wheel of a car after having a few drinks, maybe more?
Now how many of you pick your nose?
I'm going to go on a limb and guess that the last question made you blush more than the others. It's the question that you probably would be most likely to fib about if we were actually playing this little game of "Truth or Dare" in front of a group of people you know. I say this because this is the observation made by Jennifer Flynn on an episode of Oprah. Flynn's daughter Katie was just 7 years old when she was decapitated in a car crash caused by a drunk driver who plowed into the limousine that was carrying the Flynns from a family wedding where Katie served as flower girl. In her first press conference following the tragedy Jennifer Flynn described the horror of the crash that severely injured her parents, husband, and other child, and also killed the limo driver Stanley Rabinowitz, then said simply, "Drunk driving did this to us."
The most powerful point Flynn raised on Oprah is that the fault does not lie solely with drunk drivers. It lies in the nonchalant way our society treats them. As she accurately noted that day, if you were to ask a room full of people "have any of you ever gotten behind the wheel after a party feeling a little 'buzzed,'" many wouldn't be shy about raising their hands. Ask that same room "How many of you pick your nose," or "how many of you don't wash your hands after going to the bathroom" and not a single hand would go up. That's because there's a level of embarrassment we as a society attach to those behaviors that we still don't yet attach to driving drunk -- or buzzed or a little tipsy, whatever you want to call it -- particularly when it comes to celebrities.
Congressman Vito Fosella gets pulled over for driving under the influence, and the scandal becomes not that he could have killed a child, but that he fathered one out-of-wedlock with his girlfriend.
Paris Hilton gets pulled over for a DUI and later dismisses it as "nothing" while her publicist breezily jokes, "She's been known to have a drink or two." (Another publicist optimistically suggested that the move might help her image by reinforcing her status as a party princess.)
The celebrity list goes on: Charles Barkley, Shia Lebouf, Lindsay Lohan, Diana Ross, Mischa Barton, Mel Gibson, Glen Campbell, and countless others. Type in the words "actress" and "DUI" into Google and more than half a million hits appear. Type in the words "actor" and "DUI" and nearly a million hits appear.
But no one really believes that a drunk driving arrest has had any real impact on the careers of those mentioned above. (In some instances, what occurs during the drunk driving arrest actually garners more negative attention then the act of drunk driving itself think Mel Gibson and his anti-semitic rant or Vito Fosella's love child revelation or Shia Lebouf's accident injuries allegedly having a costly impact on his filming schedule.)
The point is rarely do we treat drunk driving like what it really is: the opportunity for someone to kill. In fact it seems that it is only when a celebrity actually does kill someone (such as Prison Break actor Lane Garrison or former Yankee Jim Leyritz), that their behavior is roundly denounced and even then it is the act of killing someone not the act of drunk driving that evokes criticism.
Which brings me back to Michael Phelps.
Like the aforementioned celebrities, Phelps's drunk driving arrest was merely a blip in his storied career, costing him little more than a $250 fine and $55 in court costs. Yet once Phelps made Olympic history last year, the fact that he could have killed someone three years before became a non-issue for the corporations who clamored to have his name and likeness all over their products. Now those same sponsors have suddenly decided to prove that they have some real standards, so they have begun to rake Phelps over the coals -- not for what he's actually done this time around (smoking pot in private) but for what he's done to their brands.
Don't get me wrong. I get that we are a society that likes to drink. I understand that drinking yourself silly on your 21st birthday is in many ways a right of passage in our culture -- but driving yourself home after shouldn't be. Perhaps if more of our elected officials felt just as strongly about protecting us all from the dangers of drunk driving, as they do about protecting themselves from the inconvenience of having to watch what they drink before they get behind the wheel, or the inconvenience of taking a real stand on this issue, we would all be safer.
I look forward to the day when someone getting behind the wheel and almost killing you, me, or someone we love, will be enough to make that person celebrity kryptonite -- in the same way that a celebrity getting caught picking his or her nose during an Oscars acceptance speech might. Because until that happens -- until we as a society set that standard -- we will continue to see tragedies like that of Katie Flynn and her family.
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My dreams almost realized.... the words "spanking" and "Kelli Goff" in almost perfect juxtaposition. So close.
A dui cost btwn 5-10 thousand by the time its finished. That is the real problem cities use dui laws to boost their revenue they have lowered the level of alcohal to such a minimal amount that you need a machine to test you. Everyone has met someone who had a glass of wine or beer at dinner and got a dui. As long as the law is taken to extremes society will not shun those who break it. You cant have it both ways either you arrest and fine those that are a danger and they will be labled as such or you can try to fine as many people as possible and raise funds. Why dont they make it illegal to have anything to drink? Because then responcible people wont drink anything and that would cost them.
As long as we as a society have laws that the people do not agree with people will not punish societies lawbreakers. Remember the law on drugs i am pretty sure the sides are about even, i have been at war with this county since i was 13 and i would love to see some lives ruined on the other side, with my mentallity I will side with any criminal and i would not help law enforcement in any situation.
My best friend was paralyzed by drunk sports fans that he tried to stop from slashing tires of rival sports fans eating at his restaurant. They beat him with a tire iron just for trying to stop their vandalism.
Alcohol causes seizures and cardiac arrest during withdrawal in 1 in 4 people who are physically addicted to alcohol (yes you can get physically addicted to alcohol unlike pot).
Alcohol causes bleeding esophageal veins (usually fatal), cirrhosis of the liver, increased cancer risks, water on the brain, long-term memory loss, death of brain cells, and rotted teeth.
Compared to this, pot is a rather benign drug. It should be legalized.
I agree 100%! It's about time someone wrote an article about this. I will never understand the total condemnation of pot smoking, when drinking and driving is just a thing that happens and people don't think twice about it. Disgusting.
I agree with you, but it won't happen anytime soon.
Well said. I will be boycotting Kellogg products because they are boycotting Phelps.
ramal you missed the whole point of the article.
Thank you, Keli Goff. We need more voices like yours to put to shame those other voices of self righteous hypocrisy: those self righteous hypocrites that look the other way when a famous athlete (Michael Phelps) gets caught driving an automobile while under the influence of alcohol but love to condemn that same athlete when he's photographed smoking pot. Talk about having their priorities out of whack!
Oh yeah. And all this ignores the fact that this man smokes pot, and is openly recognized as the best swimming athlete on the planet at this time. Period. Bet you're revising your government-approved belief that pot makes you a lazy nobody now, huh?
But, drugs are bad. MMMMkay?
I think there is a place of moderation here...if we can find it perhaps.
To me, marijuana is more of a drug than alcohol or ciggies. But that's just my viewpoint.
And while I think that throwing the book at someone who is caught with a tiny bit of marijuana is more stupid than anything, I don't believe in condoning it's use at all.
Throwing someone in jail though, because they had a drink when no one had an accident and no one was around is fraught with danger too. For as the author wrote...how many of us have been there and thankfully got home without incident?
One heck of a lot of us.
Seriously, I'm beginning to consider giving up even the occasional beer....
"To me, marijuana is more of a drug than alcohol or ciggies"....you could ONLY make a statement like that if you'd NEVER smoked pot...otherwise you'd know how silly and innocuous this "drug" is....just look at, not only the social cost to individuals, but the cost to society in general in real dollars (the prison industry in particular...)....this country doesn't even like to acknowledge the value of industrial hemp....talk about fear mongering.....do a little research and look at the history of different cultures throughout the world as well as the current view by the medical and realistic social scientists that have ACTUALLY studied it, rather than a bunch of politicians looking for a message to distort for their own purposes.....after alcohol, this should be a none issue......let's stop wasting our limited resources and focus on REAL issues that can make a difference....don't you think the sheriff in sc that has proudly busted 8 college kids for pot has ANYTHING better to do???...i mean, WTF.....and he's considering going after michael phelps....DUH!!!......these are called VICTIMLESS crimes.......and for a good reason.....
Bravo!
So if we were just more unforgiving and mean to those that make foolish choices drunk driving would end? How about we put in real public transport and allow neighborhood bars?
Yes, I think you are correct. We don't seem to be as concerned that the person who might be over the limit to drive can get home safely without driving.
Maybe we should?
Two limited points:
Sprawl contributes to much of the drinking and driving. Neighborhoods should be self-contained units where possible. Efficient and effective public transportation would go a long way towards eliminating the scourge that is rolling down the street smoking indo sippin' on gin and juice...laid back. Humans pick their nose and they get their buzz on in various ways. Some are workaholics, some are greedy, some covet sex and more sex, or war and more war. Drugs are manifest, there is no shortage of abuse of something in American or world society. The pot alcohol debate is a non-debate for those who know. Surely the reasonable can agree that driving impaired, no matter the drug, is not good for society. If I was enthralled with sex to the degree where I allowed the expression of that addiction to take my eyes off the road, that is the same as any other intoxication behind the wheel. Mr. Phelps is a weed whacker (no pun). He is clearing the tall grass for a path to acceptance. It is going to happen and it is really only a matter of time. So many people in this society are self-medicating in various ways for various reasons.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that there are methods to obtain a pure high without drugs...but to each their own.
In most American cities you really take your life into your hands by driving past 8:30 pm. Not only are so many drivers distracted by cell phones and (I'll never understand this) texting. They are all too often drunk. One of the greatest, if unsung benefits of a viable public transportation system is that it keeps the anesthestitized from hurling their vehicles into things not meant to be hurled at.
I've spent most of my life in three (seemingly random) cities : Omaha, Boston and Amsterdam. Omaha's sprawl and lack of transportation options makes it the worst. Amsterdam, with its compact layout, exceptional mass transit and love of bicycles make it by far the best.
There is a profound link between city design and all manner of health issues, including drink driving. Cities that are marked by sprawl experience higher obesity levels, with all of the detrimental health implications that go with it. But it's more than that - spending your life in a car is no way to spend your life. There's something really nice about living in a neighborhood where your feet can take you to whatever you need to get to.
Dutchman
Three reasons this is a non-story:
1) In a country where dangerous recreational drugs are legal (alcohol and cigarettes), there is no legitimate reason for the criminalization of marijuana. It is a law that no one should take seriously. If anything, this made him more acceptable to me than his sports addiction.
2) Parents should be role models to their children. Sports heroes are adrenaline junkies who will do anything to win. Anybody who expects exemplary behavior from these puffed up pituitary freaks is an ass. The only thing Phelps can teach our children is how to swim. I do not teach my children that sports heroes are worth idolizing. I prefer movie stars, who can at least can choose their message and tend to be responsible about thier celebrity (with notable exceptions). But I've yet to hear or read about one sports figure I would want my child to emulate. From high school through adulthood, athletes tend toward arrogance, elitism, corruption, cruelty, favoritism and a hundred other bad habits. Why should we forgive all this because they could push their body past some arbitrary benchmark.
3) As soon as somebody has achieved something we admire the media starts looking for the fall. I knew this day was coming ever since he won his medals. It was inevitable. The media purposely obscures the weight of the offense against the greatness of the achievement. It's all just bread and circuses.
Drinking and Traffic accidents and deaths went down when pot smoking went up in the 70 and 80's.
An Army study showed that experienced pot smokers were slightly BETTER drives than abstainers.
Pot and alcohol dont mix. If you are drunk and smoke some pot you will get dizzy and barf. If you drink while smoking you will not drink as much. Its amazing how many uniformed people dont see that based on the many years of statistics. Alcohol deaths from traffic and illness compared to pot are like comparing the ocean to a thimble full of water. I dont know why the myths about pot exist to this day with all the data. Yet somehow stupidity prevails around the world like some sort of skin rash.
Nixon and the FBI conspired to bust liberals for pot.
That's why.
Thank you for the update / or rather the story about the Flynns. it is so tragic! Yet again in todays social climate youth aresome youth are actuallly heeding the message believe it or not!! My 22 yo daughter goes drinking with fiends and they always have a D D! she doesn't drive soo she can drink if she wants to but she often does not! I mention her not as " my little angel" (though she.) but to highlite the fact that modern youth are in fact to some extent exercising the responsible effort that we have been touyting for their generation!
Annheiser Busch has run many ads reflecting this same neccessity and I think this is more than commendable!
Kellog's has made mega $$$ just on " POP TARTS " from the pot head crowd! not exactly health food were talking about here!
Marijuana in it's propper time and place should be perfectly acceptavle!!! Yet, The insane marijuana prohibition which has overpopulated our jails and prisons and ramped up the frenzy of prison building projects is a contributing factor to our over extended tax burden! creating a criminal class based on an organic weed has been to our societies detrimant! The armed conflict surrounding pot kills many !
CHANGE THESE ASSININE LAWS NOW!!!
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