Mike Celizic claims in his sports blog featured on MSNBC that testing for steroids should be executed at the high school level and that’s where Congress should get involved. After briefly recounting a few instances of congressional involvement, Celizic scolds Congress for not dragging the other sports (tennis, snowboarding, volleyball, and others) before a committee. Then he accuses congress of wanting to make headlines, and reticules Congress for not going “to the source- high school.” Celizic delves slightly into the abstinence-only sex education program to argue that teenagers don’t refrain from actions as a result of “preaching to them.”
From there, Celizic discusses the two major steroids busts, one of which was a Hollywood scandal and resulted in no jail time, and tries to relate this with the 50,000 people in American prisons for marijuana-related offenses. Stating that the nation’s drug policy ignores half a million people alcohol and tobacco related deaths each year.
Furthermore, Celizic feels that if congress wants to save our kids from steroids they should pull money from “the failure that is the war on drugs” and invest it into testing programs for high school sports. Then he discusses the war effort and the money being pumped into that at a blaring speed of $600 per second. Before some disclaimer about steroid use to improve looks and combat the signs of aging which Celizic feels is a non-issue.
He then reiterates that the pro level isn’t where the steroid problem begins and discusses how the pro leagues are improving testing, offering that there’s nothing wrong with a continual nudge. He further offers Donald Fehr’s advice as both a solution and criticism. Fehr suggested requiring drug manufacturers to attach a chemical signature to synthetic human growth hormones to make them detectable with a urine test. Celizic closes the blog with a question, “For all their alleged concern, why didn’t anybody in Congress think of that?”
Overall, I thought this was a very poorly constructed argument lacking substance and continuity of thought. Celizic is all over the place waving fingers and discussing some unrelated topics. He also uses some outrageous facts in an attempt to help his argument, but most of what he cites is so unrelated it seems desperate at best.
I think Celizic should have spent more time formulating his argument for focusing congressional attention on drug testing in high school, and less time meandering about prodding random tidbits and lashing out at Congress. His lack of both structure and methodical thought provide a weak argument, and completely fail to convince the reader of much. Sure chemical signatures seems like a great solution, but it also seems obvious if they must be added in order for the hormones to be detected in a urine sample they will likely remain available without chemical signatures for a price.
Moreover Celizic doesn’t seem to understand that a sex education program has little if any connection to steroid testing. It seems highly unlikely that steroid use is as prevalent or fashionable with teenagers as sexuality. And I’m still lost as to how the war effort relates to Celizic’s argument.
I gleaned a touch of background information and insight on steroid use, which is suspect considering Celizic doesn’t have sources for most of the information he provides. I also learned that a powerfully written and timely sports blog is difficult to find.
">Link
http://openmike.msnbc.msn.com/
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