Michael Phelps

I guess it’s true what they say; money ain’t everything.

I have been listening to people talking about how Michael Phelps is a role model, and that he is being paid to uphold a very positive image for our youth, and how he is not just an average kid.

Well! I’ve got 1- 23-year-old kid with a bong in his hand in the act of smoking weed, and a near conviction on DUI not too long ago that says he is just a 23-year-old kid.

Although he is a rich kid, he still is a kid. And he is doing what kids do, live and hopefully learn.

I don’t see any reason to condemn Mike for smoking weed in the privacy of his own room, or in someone else’s room that he thought was private.

As a matter of fact, I am not in a position honestly to judge how anyone gets down in their spare time, when what they are doing has absolutely no effect on my life.

I guess he was just doing what many people do when they are off from work, (or in Phelps’s case, not in training), which is enjoying their leisure time by doing what they like to do. And I don’t see how that is being a bad role model no more then if that person, (which was mostly likely someone who he knew and trusted), would have violated his privacy by following him into the bathroom when he went to relieve himself, or in the bedroom when he went to be relieved.

People have a right to privacy no matter what their career is or what the size of their paycheck is.

But high profile people such as Michael Phelps needs to realize that they are more prone to this type of exploitation, and need to guard themselves as much as is humanly possible.

But I will say this, (and this is not a moral judgment), whatever Michael Phelps does; the consequences are on Michael Phelps, as is the case with everyone who is classified as a legal adult.

It is up to Mike to decide if he wants to throw away the spectacular achievements that he has made so early in his life; achievements of the like that most people in the world will never come to realize.

He knows what is in his endorsement contracts, and the behaviors and actions on his part that would cause him to be in violation of those terms that could cause all of those sponsors to make his contract null and void, which could cost him millions of dollars in present and future endorsements.

But once again I want to point out that I do still believe in our right to privacy, and I do not think that Phelps expected to have his private business all over the public’s radar. He just wanted what a lot of us like to have from time to time, a buzz.

Now for all who are complaining about the “Role Model Issue”, I think that if you are allowing a 23 year old kid to raise your kids, then you have a problem, and so does your child.

Celebrities are just people. And some of these people are very sick and messed up people, just like the very sick and messed up people that you know who are not famous that I hope you would not allow within 5 miles of your children.

If Brittany Spears, Michael Vick, Michael Phelps, Russel Crow, Christian Bale, The Olen Twins, Miley Cyrus, and other famous and sometimes troubled people are the lighthouse, roadmap, and role model for how your child will be raised, and for the kind of people that they will grow up to be, then you have a problem, which in turn means that they have a problem.

These people’s jobs are to do their jobs, and to live their lives according to their own internal compasses, just like everybody else.

They are not responsible for your children’s lives.

You Are!

So I personally wish you the best Michael Phelps, and I hope that you will recover once again from this very public negative media Circus, that is the result of an act that was supposed to be a very private and individual act.

It will take more then a few puffs to diminish my respect for your accomplishments in the Olympics, in commerce, and in life.

However, you need to be careful, because the sponsors, the Olympic Committee’s, and the people who expect you to be a parent to their children, not to mention the law will not be so understanding of your actions from here on out.

Watch Out Homeboy!

Greg Coleman