I wanna be your Hero

So the Lance Armstrong myth was unravelled "like a cheap sweater" this week as news came out that 11 of his former teammates confessed to doping, implicating him beyond any reasonable doubt, and not just as a victim of a corrupt system, but as a mastermind who took the whole thing to a new level.(See articles on George Hindcapie and Levi Heipheimer)
I have to say I was a true believer. I have the t-shirt. Actually, it is a very cool Discovery Team yellow jersey (circa 2005).
Even in Africa people know what that is about and say "Armstrong" when I ride by.
I have the yellow LIvestrong bracelet and wore it until about a month ago when stories started leaking out in the cycllng press.  I had always defended Lance but had lurking doubts, esepecially about the stories you'd always hear about him being vindictive and mean to those who dared cross him or the preferred version of the truth. It was then that I read a story by his former personal assistant and mechanic who eventually began to see signs and was written off as he finally refused to go along with the lie.  Lance is calling him a "disgruntled former employee". (Why is that you never run into gruntled employees?"
I think I held out a glimmer of hope in the integrity of cycling until George Hindcapie caved because he is widely accepted and loved and I thought surely he would not lie.
When he confessed this week, my initial reaction was "Is there no one righteous, not even one?"
This leads me to the whole topic of hero worship.
I came to sports fandom in my 40s. I was never good at team sports, and lived out of the US for most of my child and teen years so was underexposed to sports rules and teams at that age when you gain your sports team loyalty.
I became a fan of cycling through the backdoor - e.g. by riding my bike more and more and then transfering my love for riding to those folks riding by so fast on my TV screen in amazing french paysages. And then to this man with an incredible story, overcoming cancer and then dominating through training, discipline, scientific techniques, and an incredible team.... who we know learn were all doping. TdF oficials are now saying they can not even re-attribute Lance's 7 Tour de France wins because practically everyone in that era who was in the top 10 has been caught or confessed to doping.
"Twenty of the 21 podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005 have been directly tied to likely doping through admissions, sanctions, public investigations or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold. Of the 45 podium finishes during the time period between 1996 and 2010, 36 were by r  riders similarly tainted by doping." —USADA Reasoned Decision Against Lance Armstrong
Mr. Smith has gone to Washington and it seems that not only is he NOT Jimmy Stewart, he is a bigtime "insider" handing out favors to the cronies in his district.
So why DO we have such a desire to make heros out of people? I think it grows out of the idealism of youth, and the desire for things to be RIGHT in the world. If things are not right, then at least there are people out there fighting for truth and righteousness and justice. The desire for a better world, for a RIGHT world is a good one. 
The problem is when heros and even good men fall. There but for the grace of God go I.
When this happens we have the choice of retaining our high ideals and carrying on to fight another day.
Or of giving up hope:

Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope, I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter,
but since I gave up hope, I feel a lot better
(Steve Taylor, Since i gave up hope)

Steve Taylor also has a song called simple "Hero" wherein he tells the tale of a boy who read comic books by flashlight in seek of heros, only to see them crashing down.

Hero
It's a nice-boy notion that the real world's gonna destroy
You know it's a Marvel comicbook Saturday matinee fairytale boy
Growing older you'll find that illusions are bought
And the idol you thought you'd be was just another zero
I wanna be a hero
Heroes died when the squealers bought 'em off
Died when the dealers got 'em off

Taylor goes on to ask "where's a boy to turn?"
and then recounts how he was led to the pages of another book, when the house fell asleep, and to a man, Jesus, who said "I wanna be your hero".
And He, my friends, is a hero worth following, who will not disappoint.  You can wear HIS jersey and know you will not be caught short one day.

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