Role Models (The A-Rod Tragedy)

My old friend Pete has an entry on heroes and role models at his blog and I posted asking him and his readers:

What I'd like to know is everyone's view on what they think someone should get FROM a role model. Why should we have, why should there be role models?

And Pete took up the question in his follow up entry. And I agree with him that, to some degree, it's natural for kids to look up to "stars". But kids like to look up to people who can do things they themselves would like to do; to be like people they are not. Now, this is understandable growing up as we look for many examples of what people are like.

But once we are grown...what happens? Why do we still feel the need to have heroes or role models?

I admit to having only one true hero in my adult life but ultimately felt ashamed that I wasn't doing what this person was doing (meaning his political activities) and so my hero was a sign of my personal failure.

Now, all this came about on the heels of the A-Rod admission. In Pete's article for the Poughkeepsie Journal he writes:

Come on, A-Rod! I speak for legions of Yankee fans when I say this: We want to trust you. We want to like you. We've got you for nine more years. You can do better than that; you have to do better than that.

Until you do, how can we trust you? How can we unequivocally support your relentless pursuit of history? The sad truth is, until you tell us more, we cannot. Please, A-Rod. Come through in the clutch for us. Just one time.

Integrity is what we want most from our heroes/role models. We want to know that they are better than us, why else admire them so? But the reality is that, really, they aren't and we have to ask ourselves why we value them more then ourselves? Why do we feel they are some how better than us?

This is why we, as a culture, like to see our heroes fall as well...it brings them down to our perceived level.

Now, in the case of A-Rod, I can't agree with my old friend...as far as I'm concerned, A-Rod, and those like him, should be written off, cut loose. It isn't that he deserves a second chance or that we all make mistakes. If he had come clean the first time he was asked, we'd be more forgiving because, yes, at that point we all agree we make mistakes and deserve a second chance. But he didn't take this avenue. He lied. Lied when he thought he could get away with it.

So, knowing this, how can anyone support him, what more can he say that would change anything now?