Linda Robertson, The Miami Herald

August 16, 2008

Linda Robertson
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693

RE: It seems like old times – Gold medals and metal heads as revealed, perhaps inadvertently, by you in today’s Miami Herald, dateline The Hidden Kingdom.

Ms. Robertson,

In a synopsis of previous contenders for Greatest Olympian Ever you say

“Greg Louganis: Four gold medals in diving, even
when he gashed his head open while hiding
the secret of his HIV infection.”
The Miami Herald
Page 7D
Today
You

When last we corresponded the front page of the New York Times was daily divided by the two most important questions facing the country in 2003: viz.; Should the United States invade Iraq and Should chickies tee them up in the Masters.

5 years later American is still in Iraq and urinals still stand unchallenged as the primary bladder emptying receptacle in Augusta. I know “The more things change the more they remain the same” sounds much better in French. The problem is that I still don’t much like the Froggies so I’ll leave it in English.

Back to Louganis.

Did he gash his head because he had HIV?
Did he gash his head for fear of someone finding out he had HIV?
Did he gash his head because divers sometimes do that?

There was a time in this country when most people believed that tomatoes were poisonous.

There was a time in this country when the consensus of science – and if you ever need an example of an oxymoron feel free to use “consensus of science” – that “Global Cooling” would cause – Honest Injun! – The world to end. [Vide – “The Population Bomb” by Paul Ehrlich, naturally PhD]
There was a time in this country when reasonable, rational people thought that you could catch HIV through casual contact. We now know that it takes more than a handshake. It takes up close and personal, a one on one exchange of personal body fluids. For the purposes of this discussion the body fluid in question is blood.

Thus, the real story of Greg Louganis was/is simple.

On his quest for the Gold he suffered an athlete’s wound. [I have small scar at the base of my thumb that I got in a football scrimmage when Eisenhower was President and the country lived in a mortal peril caused by the “missile gap”.]

By failing to disclose his condition [a material fact that if this discussion involved securities such a failure to disclose would have made him liable for fraud charges] he placed his first responder care givers – a phrase that didn’t exist when he dove for a living – at risk. The fact that the risk may not have been real is irrelevant. The people who came first out of the trenches to help him thought it was.

People and countries act on perceptions. It is in their rational self interest to do so. In an age where perception is reality it would be foolish not to.

Meanwhile, I suggest a primer on traditional Logic for the ride back from Winkie Land. Greg’s gash, in your story, is what is known as a non sequitur.

If there is a suggestion box for ink stained wenches to drop some thoughts into may I suggest Billie Jean King playing Federer? The age difference is about the same when she played Bobby Riggs. If I am to believe TV she looks like she no longer is in the race to be the Pillsbury Dough Girl. Lace them up and see what happens.



PS – Al Oerter neither medaled nor competed in the Olympics in the shot put. I guess the Yellow Peril shut down Google.