Oh Tiger...

It’s not like me to sit on the sidelines and not make a comment or two about anything to be honest. I’m opinionated, and I often voice that opinion. The good news is I’m opinionated about friends and foes alike, I’ll tell you what I think the team I like is doing wrong just as often as a team I could care less about. I discriminate against none when it comes to my opinion. I could hardly sit back and watch the Tiger Woods scandal pass by without an opinion, and thus I have come to mine.

Tiger, we all know, should be ashamed of himself. He cheated. He broke his vows, he lied, and he deceived. What he did was wrong, hurtful, and embarrassing. That being said there are two other culprits, okay maybe even three others that need to own up to their actions as well.

1 – The media. While I believe in freedom of the press, there is such a thing as decency. I believe the public has no business knowing things that destroy his marriage and can hurt his family. I’m sure Elin can handle it, but what about his children? Is nothing sacred? Does Tiger also have the right to privacy, and do his children and wife have the right to some respect? When I was learning about the Constitution I understood it as your freedoms end where mine begin; so her right to privacy has to be sacrificed for the freedom of the press? That doesn’t seem right, Tiger didn’t kill anyone, he didn’t commit purgery, didn’t steal millions of dollars from unsuspecting individuals. What he did is between him, Elin, and God.

2 – The women. I believe in a code, maybe it has long been forgotten but I still believe in it. I believe that no woman knowingly commits adultery with a married man, let alone a married man with children. I believe that women are supposed to have enough self-respect that they value themselves enough to respect other women and the sanctity of marriage. True, maybe Tiger would have found someone else to cheat with, but I wonder what would have happened if just one of these women would have said ‘Shame on you’ to him. I have personally never been cheated on, but I have known friends who have been. The hurt, betrayal, shame, and disrespect they feel is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. The fact that anyone would enable this to happen to a fellow sister, friend, mother, is beyond me. I think the women in this scandal are the most disgraceful. They knowingly broke up a marriage, knowingly hurt his children, and knowingly grabbed for fame when the scandal broke out. I hope if any good comes of this it will be women everywhere remembering the code, and remembering they never wish to hurt another woman like that ever again.

3 – The Public. I love my gossip mags just as everyone else does, but recently I have been reading them less and less. I don’t want to support Jon Gosselin making an idiot of himself by selling himself out to any media outlet that will have him. I won’t support the destruction of families by magazines constantly exploiting extra-marital affairs. True they are juicy, and true the individuals should have known better. But we as a public dictate what is given to us. If we all refused to buy any magazine that beated a dead horse cold on affairs, or break ups then maybe we wouldn’t have such a hungry papparazzi. The same papparazzi that gets physical with stars, gets involved in high speed chases that have ended lives, and virtually eliminates any moral values left in the media. Those individuals do need to own up to their actions, but we need to own up to ours as well. We cannot continue to allow the media to fill the airwaves, television sets and print with crap and then complain that our society has no morals.

One last thing: Parents, stop relying on the stars to be your children’s role models and be them yourself. Stop acting like a friend to your kids and start acting like a parent. Stop sitting home and reading US Weekly and watching E! and get off your butt and take your kids to volunteer at a Soup Kitchen or Habitat for Humanity. Keep your kids busy with good activities and maybe we wouldn’t have so much violence in our youth. Help others and maybe we wouldn’t need as much government assistance. Your parents would be ashamed of you.