Lance or Neil: Which Armstrong For You?

The effects of drugs on human body

 Which Armstrong would you rather be: Lance or Neil?  Here you have the choice of being famous for your sports prowess, the trophies and medals, your fierce, relentless battle with cancer, and your great fame, or having the choice of being the first person to walk on the moon and speak one of the most famous sentences in American history. The choice is yours.

Of course you might quip that Neil is dead, but that isn't what I'm really talking about. I'm referring to character and class.

It's hard for me to believe that such a fierce competitor like Lance Armstrong would give up a fight against what  he says is a false accusation. Lance swears his innocence but is quitting the fight to defend his good name. Perhaps the fact that a number of his peers are willing to testify against him has something to do with his putting on the brakes, so to speak. Lack of courage, or just plain guilt?

The effects of courage on human body

Neil, on the other hand, will never be doubted for his courage. Imagine the pure guts it takes to "go where no man had gone before." To venture into space, to ride a rocket, to pursue the moon, to never be certain of the outcome, now that takes courage and yes, a great deal of patriotism. 

But Neil, a Navy pilot who flew 78 combat missions in the Korean War, a graduate of Purdue University, aeronautical engineer, never wanted to be in the public eye and only appeared once on a segment of "60 Minutes" back in 2006. He never won a bike race either--he just flew where no man had gone before, along with Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins.

I somehow suspect that if Neil Armstrong was ever accused of faking something that he actually accomplished, he would have not given up so easily to his accusers. But Lance isn't cut from the same cloth as Neil.  You can't fake a moon landing unless you're a conspiracy theorist who believes everything can be faked, like a person whose father, step-father and school records all say Muslim, but who claims to be Christian and still attacks the Christian faith with obvious policies that show disfavor. Neil Armstrong wasn't a fake and definitely was a real hero. Lance Armstrong, as far as I can tell, isn't a hero and definitely is a fake. How sad--he made us so proud when he won all those Tour de France races.

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Jihad Joe Soft Cover           

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