Out of character comment by Steve Scott

HSD wrote:

...but it doesn't seem quite fair that someone from Kenya who's run for Kenya all his life can suddenly switch nationalities and start breaking records.

what do you mean, it doesn't seem quite fair?

did lagat not work hard to run fast? did he run on a track that was short? did he not meet all the citizenship requirements?

the "American" record means the fastest time run by an American citizen, plain and simple.

Somehow in this county, even with every kid in grade school learning that one of the things that made the united states different is that we allow those who are not born here to become citizens, some people still have a problem with it.

why the hell do we attach any sort of value to the geographical location you were born and raised? who cares? what i care about is your desire to be american and your willingness to follow the laws that we all follow.

the fact is, you and me and steve scott have a heck of a lot more in common with bernard lagat than we have in common with some fat-ass, beer swilling, NASCAR fan who is a functional illiterate.

put another way: if you were in charge of a club - wouldn't you want the best people in the club? wouldn't you be excited that someone of great stature wanted to join the club, rather than just the guy down the street who smoked meth and beats his kids?[/quote]

As usual, a Letsrunner thinks they are "setting us all straight" and showing just how accepting they are of other cultures and people...and then slams "fat-ass, beer swilling nascar fans." I forget, does that make them less American even though they are "following the laws" just like you and me? Typcial ignorant dumbass.[quote]hadd about enough wrote:

Yeah? Well, you sound like a sore loser.

If I was Scott I would be more upset with the fact that Lagat is a drug cheat.

I've already posted but then thought about the matter a little more. What if the case were slightly different? What if in one race Lagat broke not only the American record but also the world record? How would those who don't like the idea of Lagat holding the American record react? Or what if in one race he broke the American record then in a later race broke the world record?

I can see that many people would like the idea of an American once again holding the world record but not liking that someone who formerly represented another country now holding an American record.

Mtn Dew-

I just don't know where to start. What you posted to say, "where is the xenophobia here?" is exactly what I would post to say...."can't you see the obvious xenophobia here?"

1. He has an admitted animosity toward "foreigners." He names Sydnee Maree and Bernard Lagat.

2. He shows a preference toward people born here.

3. He has some clear regret about how he feels as evidenced by his contradiction (his grandparents immigration status).

4. This doesn't touch the implied messages which are equally strong.

5. You are a xenophobe too. I am sorry to be the first one to tell you this.

MNApologist makes me embarrassed to be from MN. I hope he moves to Tibet and starts taking down National records.

MNApologist wrote:

Mtn Dew-

I just don't know where to start. What you posted to say, "where is the xenophobia here?" is exactly what I would post to say...."can't you see the obvious xenophobia here?"

1. He has an admitted animosity toward "foreigners." He names Sydnee Maree and Bernard Lagat.

2. He shows a preference toward people born here.

3. He has some clear regret about how he feels as evidenced by his contradiction (his grandparents immigration status).

4. This doesn't touch the implied messages which are equally strong.

5. You are a xenophobe too. I am sorry to be the first one to tell you this.

Show me the animosity. I have a feeling that's another word you don't understand. Animosity means ill will or resentment bordering on hostility. I see none of that in Scott's words.

Showing a preference to people that are born here is NOT xenophobia. Go look up the meaning. He may be showing some nationalism, but that is not the same as xenophobia. Nationalism is the promotion of one's own country while xenophobia is the hatred of foreign things. One is a positive action (mostly, but many times nationalism coincides with xenophobia, although the two don't necessarily go together). Scott's comments are nationalistic, but not necessarily xenophobic.

How am I a xenophobe? When I come across folks that are foreigners I try to learn as much as I can about their culture. I find other cultures very interesting. Once again you don't know what xenophobia is at all. Please look up the word and remember what it means. I do not hate or fear foreigners.

What should be worried about is the WR not the US record. Bring the WR to the USA

333 wrote:

Yeah? Well, you sound like a sore loser.

Perhaps. But if I were trying to win the England junior nat'l championship, then I'd be ok losing to him. I was running to win the New Hampshire state championship. This guy was a visitor, IMO.

I'd be ok if I lost to a longtime rival (resident of NH). But I didn't - I worked hard, bided my time, took my lumps as a 9th, 10th and 11th grader, and felt I was the best in the state as a senior and deserved the state championship.

I think this is a little more complex than sour grapes.

MNApologist wrote:

5. You are a xenophobe too. I am sorry to be the first one to tell you this.

No you are not the one qualified to tell anyone this. You see racists or xenophobes everywhere because that's what you want to see.

By definition, that makes you prejudiced doesn't it?

I know Steve Scott personally and will be the first to say he is a great guy. He has no ill feelings to Lagat. It's not like Lagat came here when he was five, like Meb or Abdi. He was already a world class miler when he became a U.S. citizen. I am proud of Steve for stating his honest opinion and not worrying about the ultra lib PC crowd that wants everyone to hold hands and sing "We are the World".

Scott is quoted on the front page of letsrun.com as saying:

If you're going to have you're record taken away...

If you take out the contraction, the sentence sounds like this:

If you are going to have you are record taken away...

It should be:

If you're going to have YOUR record taken away...

sick of racists wrote:

I would say that the only genuine americans are the native americans.

Outside of these people, America is a nation based on immigration and that includes people like Steve Scott and Bernard Lagat.

Actually, they immigrated too. They just did it sooner.

Native Americans (Indians) emmigrated to America, just before the Europeans. At some point, there were no humans in what is now the U.S.

You MNApologist are an idiot.

First of all, I think that we are looking at this from a bit of the wrong angle. In my mind Steve Scott (who graduated from my rival high school in CA) was perfectly justified in his statement. He would like to beable to ifentify himself with who ever breaks his record.

The thing that is kind of anti-climatic if Lagat breaks the record is that he could break it with a performance that would still not be a personal best (I am not terribly sure about what Lagat's PB is, but I am assuming that it is faster than the AR). I would be willing to bet that if Lagat went out and ran a personal best in an amazing tiem to set the new American Record that it would mean a lot more than if he shaved a few tenths off of Scott's time while still not running his all-time best.

I think that Lagat changing citizenship is great. As far as his public presence goes he is all class. I just think that more people would be excited about Alan Webb breaking the record than Lagat. For one, it would bring some validation to the American high school program that he came out of, and give hope to future Am runners that "they could do that." Whereas if Lagat does it, some people will just say that "he trained in Africa and I can never be that good."

That all said, Lagat breaking the WR to set the AR would be a sight to see and I sure as heck would cheer for him.

I think the people that are bashing Scott are idiots because they haven't even taken the time to read the entire article and his quote. The quote on the front page that has been talked about a lot might show a little bias but a bias that I think anyone with the record would feel. What people have failed to read is the next sentence he says, "But on the other side of the coin, almost all of us came here from somewhere else. My mother's parents came over from Germany, so I'm just a second generation here. That's how this country is set up. Just one of those things that happens." So if you see this Scott makes it clear that he is not racist, a bigot, or many of the other things that people have said about him.

A&M Full of Racists wrote:

Steve Scott needs to reconsider his citizenship if he doesn't like the system. We historically have had the most liberal immigration policy in the world; that puts us a step up in my book.

I may be reading more into Scott's statement than is really there, but I got the impression that he, himself, isn't entirely comfortable with how he feels about Lagat breaking the record but he had the stones to say it anyway because it truly expresses how he feels. I think it's OK to have feelings and beliefs that you, yourself, are conflicted about as long as you're open to differing opinions and are willing to evolve the way you view the world. As much as we try to be rational beings, the fact remains that we still behave irrational at times. The true measure of someone's worth is not in how guarded or PC their thoughts and beliefs are but in how accepting they are of their own basic irrationality and their willingness to evolve their thinking.

I don't believe Lagat or KK becoming American citizens has motivated anyone to train harder. It is possible that they have had some effect but I have not seen nor heard anything of the such.

We will never send runners to become Kenyan citizens, I don't believe they would let us (If this is what you meant by sending a few to Kenya). Second of all, there are several tens of hundreds of Kenyans waiting for their chance to go international. It won't happen. I would be happy that one of our own is running well but wouldn't care. He would never touch their records.

A better example is one that someone has already brought up. If we sent a bunch of our hockey players to play for some random small country and they became one of the best teams in the world, would I celebrate that fact? Hell no.

Same thing if we sent some of our best baseball players to another country. I would think it was tainted a bit and I wouldn't feel good about it.

I am happy about runners running good regardless of nationality, as does Steve Scott I assume. When it comes to national records being set by runners who have competed for other countries in the Olympics and World Champs it is not so cut and dry for me. I don't care that the rules say you only have to be an American citizen. I like to think of national records as something done by someone who has had to grow through the ups and downs of the country and has strong emotional ties to that country.

We are all hypocrits(sp?) in some form or another: To not understand that is just sad and foolish. I will try to improve on my side of things and hopefully you will too on yours.