Recent events with former Republican Congressman Mark Foley show the difficulty of viewing anyone as a role model. In this age of instant information and continuous stream of media, everyone’s faults, particularly those of political figures, are free to be aired like dirty laundry.
If anything, the children of this generation should be pitied for the scarcity of enduring role models. Whether priests accused of molestation, politicians accusing priests of molestation, athletes buying drugs from police, a whole sports league defaced by performance enhancement scandals, the role models we presume to be as such are not role models.
Any society that places such value on roles models rests on shaky ground. Not even teachers, community and religious leaders, politicians and athletes are perfect. Just because we place them on a pedestal does not mean they have to or will live up to the expectations that are imposed on them. The only difference between a politician engaging in inappropriate conduct with a minor and a neighbor engaging in similar conduct is that one is a public figure. Both are human beings and flawed no matter how much they are presupposed to be perfect. Even Michael “Air” Jordan dealt with infidelity allegations and illegal gambling. Nobody will forget that Bill Clinton, while holding ‘the highest office in the land,’ was tarnished by allegations of infidelity.
Even with mounting evidence to the contrary, role models do exist, though none will live up to the idealistic status at which they are placed. Rather than teach kids that public figures should be idolized, parents should teach kids to understand that nobody is perfect. Sometimes kids are better off with the truth instead of the fiction.