New USATF CEO Writes Open Letter to Pres. Bush
USA Track & Field has written President Bush to express our concern at Marion Jones’ application for pardon or commutation of her conviction for making false statements to federal investigators. Make your own voice heard and join USATF in writing to President Bush. For more information on how to write the White House, click here. Below is the text of USATF’s letter.
Dear President Bush,
They say you can’t always believe what you read in the papers. So, when I read that Marion Jones has applied to you for a pardon or commutation of her federal conviction for making false statements to investigators, I couldn’t believe it. She lied to federal agents. She took steroids. She made false statements in a bank fraud investigation - not necessarily in that order. She admitted it. And now she apparently wants to be let off.
As the new CEO of USA Track & Field, I have a moral and practical duty to make the case against her request.
With her cheating and lying, Marion Jones did everything she could to violate the principles of track and field and Olympic competition. When she came under scrutiny for doping, she taunted any who doubted her purity, talent and work ethic. Just as she had succeeded in duping us with her performances, she duped many people into giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She pointed her finger at us, and got away with it until federal investigators teamed up with USADA and finally did her in. It was a sad thing to watch, the most glorious female athlete of the 20th century in tears on courthouse steps.
Our country has long turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of our heroes. If you have athletic talent or money or fame, the law is applied much differently than if you are slow or poor or an average American trying to get by. At the same time, all sports have for far too long given the benefit of the doubt to its heroes who seem too good to be true, even when common sense indicates they are not.
To reduce Ms. Jones’ sentence or pardon her would send a horrible message to young people who idolized her, reinforcing the notion that you can cheat and be entitled to get away with it. A pardon would also send the wrong message to the international community. Few things are more globally respected than the Olympic Games, and to pardon one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the Olympic movement would be nothing less than thumbing our collective noses at the world.
In my new job as CEO of USA Track & Field, I must right the ship that Ms. Jones and other athletes nearly ran aground. I implore you, Mr. President: Please don’t take the wind out of our sails.
Respectfully Yours,
Douglas G. Logan
CEO, USA Track & Field
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July 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am |
Doug Logan began his tenure as USATF CEO declaring he wanted to be a “passionate voice” against the plague of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Now with his open letter to President Bush - arguing against the pardon requested by disgraced Olympic champion and drug cheat Marion Jones - he has taken a first step toward fullfilling that goal.
But in a world where governments sanction torture, where top financiers take intemperate risks knowing that if those risks are just large enough they will be deemed ‘too large to fail’ and get bailed out, we see the cynical environment from which PED use so easily springs.
Sports have never been more than mirrors to societies at large. And this one decided some time ago that the ends justify the means (think Iran-Contra), that the grasshopper of constant consumption would be our model rather than the ant of savings. In the U.S. the rate of savings collapsed in the early 1980’s, dropping below 5% of national income from 9-10% during most of the previous three decades. Today, that rate has slipped into negative territory. The message is clear, hope for the future is audacious at best, so get yours now before our turn at the trough passes.
So, notwithstanding the duplicity of Marion Jones and her like-minded cheats, let’s not get too righteous in our indignation and condemnation. It’s hard to blame the young for striving at any length for the rewards they’ve had dangled before them since the day they were born, for striving for the rewards the Haves had long consigned to themselves irrespective of their bad behavior, for striving for the rewards they now see waning before their very eyes. PEDs are no more than a venal sin in a value system of Enron, Bear Stearns, and Abu Gharib.
Mr. Logan’s letter to President Bush is a worthwhile gesture. It could just use a similar committment to adult behavior from the other value centers of the country, mostly notably from the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm |
I’d just like to point out that the AP has picked up this story. A very good thing for the rest of the mainstream populace to see a clear message from our leadership. Hopefully, reporting stories such as this one will help casual fans understand that the doping “problem” in athletics has as much — and maybe more — to do with a serious commitment to testing and punishment as it has to do with the number of athletes using illegal PEDs.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:08 pm |
Do we have a copy or rough idea of Marion’s rationale for a pardon. The nation is at war, the nation is trying to stave off economic disaster on the home front and Marion would like a pardon. As Steve Martin would say, “EXCUSE ME!”
There are a few more important issues on the table. I suppose her best chance is to hope the issue gets buried under the weight of all the other problems and gets rubber-stamped when no one else is looking.
Pardon or not, the track community will not forget. That won’t bother her. Unfortunately she has already proven a disdain for what we think or hope to stand for.