Chael Sonnen, despite what ever his argument/excuse may be, got caught taking a performance enhancing drug (PED).  He is not the first and most certainly will not be the last to try and gain an unfair advantage or gets caught.

This latest revelation in this on going dark saga merely emphasizes 3 points:

• Contact sports and combat sports in particular must maintain a vigorous zero tolerance policy as it pertains to PED’s.
• The PED problem in MMA is bigger than many may appreciate.
• It is time for Olympic style testing including random year around sampling and blood testing in elite MMA.

Contact sports like football and combat sports like boxing and MMA have a fundamental and important difference to their non-contact brethren.  In contact and combat sports the application of significant bodily force to ones opponent is critical and virtually constant.

As a physician, I look at fair play a bit differently than most. I am less interested in who wins the contest as I am concerned about each competitor’s ability to fairly defend themselves on the field of battle.

If a sprinter gains an unfair advantage by using a PED they potentially run faster than the person in the lane next to them.  If a baseball slugger uses a PED they may hit more home runs than they otherwise would or should have.  If a football player or fighter uses PED’s they have the ability to cause serious harm to an opponent which is a vastly different outcome.

Zero tolerance in contact and combat sports means that no one should care that your excuse may be that you unknowingly took a tainted or mis-labeled nutritional supplement.  That will mean very little to the competitor that you injured.

And just to be clear.  We’re not talking failed tests due to cold remedies and asthma inhalers here.

My disappointment with the rhetoric offered by the Sarah Palin’s, Dr. Laura’s, Rush Limbaugh’s, Don Imus’s and Glenn Beck’s of the world is that their messages resonate with so many Americans.

It seems that every time I begin to become encouraged and believe that there has been real substantial progress in OUR country something happens to remind me that many have merely put a more presentable façade on some of this country’s ugly unresolved issues.

America has so much more ability than is currently being realized.  There has always been this illusion of ‘Promise’ but the continued appreciation and consumption of this dark rhetoric continuously dispensed by the aforementioned and others makes me truly wonder.

I’m not amazed that these media darlings spew forth this filth but I must admit that I am very disappointed and somewhat disheartened that so many of my nice neighbors agree with and enjoy it.

Many writers have attempted to re-cast the latest events as merely another ‘teachable moment’.  But why must these opportunities continue to come at the expense of the dignity of other decent Americans?

In my heart, I continue to believe that WE are far better than this despite OUR continued consumption of non-productive chatter and worse.

Did the caller seek Dr. Laura’s professional help to be berated and publicly humiliated?  Did the good doctor fulfill the highest standards of her profession? (Then again, what are the professional standards of a talk show host?  Better yet- what is she a doctor of?) Or did Dr. Laura once again use a real person seeking help as just another opportunity to propagate her personal agenda and beliefs all for the sake of ratings and the almighty dollar?

Newsflash 

These talking head, pundit, media darling, know-it-all experts are playing their listening audiences for fools with their outlandish, over-the-top and divisive commentary.  They don’t care what they say and they certainly don’t care who they hurt.  They are in the business of selling inflammatory provocation and fear mongering neatly packaged as entertainment and apparently business is very good.

Schlesinger, Palin, Imus, Limbaugh & Beck Inc. makes untold millions from doing exactly what constructive?  This particular media conglomerate has done absolutely nothing to solve any of America’s numerous, very real and significant issues but the money keeps rolling in…and a sizeable portion of ‘we the people’ keep listening. 

When will we support a talk show host that actually attempts to find meaningful and respectful resolution to some of America’s more difficult issues?  Are we ready for a host that moderates an intelligent dialogue instead of one that preys on insidious, petty fears and tells the huddled masses what to think? 

Instead of sound bites and obstruction what about civil discourse and production?  Is America ready for insightful media voices that use their platforms for something more than merely catering to their massive egos and helping themselves to the low hanging fruit?