In need of heroes, even fake ones

Searching for music for my iTouch was a surprisingly educational experience. I needed to find good music, but that posed a problem: I don't know any good music. I needed someone to tell me what songs were good; I needed someone I trusted, and that is where Thom Yorke comes in.

Thom Yorke is the lead singer of the band Radiohead, a band widely regarded as one of the few which regularly produces good music. I tried to download some of Radiohead's songs and listen to them, but I was less than thrilled with the results. Their songs were OK, but I certainly wouldn't call it good music; it's very loud.

I didn't give up yet. Thom Yorke is supposed to be highly respected for his taste in music, so, undaunted, I went to the iTunes Celebrity Playlist feature, found Yorke's and immediately downloaded his recommendations onto my iTouch. It turns out he is much better at recommending good music than actually producing it.

That's when I made the realization that this was exactly what I want. I want a role model to tell me what to like. I don't want to know if his music is bad. What good does that do me? Sometimes you just need direction; sometimes certain things are best left unknown.

Selena Roberts, a writer for "Sports Illustrated," is releasing a book May 12 about Alex Rodriguez. The book alleges that Rodriguez might have been using steroids from as early as his sophomore year of high school. It details Rodriguez's high-stakes poker habits and affinity for women who aren't his wife. Why do we have to know this?

Before steroid allegations surrounded Rodriguez three months ago, he was one of the good guys. He was the best player in baseball and he was doing it the clean way. He was a light of hope in the middle of the dense fog that was Barry Bonds. He was going to break Bonds' home run record and Americans would be able to be happy again. But then Selena Roberts had to come along and mess everything up. Because of her, we were forced to confront a reality we all wish we could avoid: A-Rod is no different than one of us.

We don't want one of us to be the home run king. We want a hero. We want Hank Aaron, the man who had to contend with racism as well as the opposing team. We want Babe Ruth, a man whose power was so consuming he actually called his shot in a World Series game. We don't want fallible people. We want super humans.

Walt Disney was a fixture in American media for close to 50 years. He spent his Sunday nights in people's living rooms telling them about Disneyland and Disney World. Who cares if he was a racist and participated in the McCarthy communist witch trials? He made people happy, and that was enough.

Now, I am not advocating the abolition of investigative reporting, but I think it should be done with much more care and caution. Certain things probably deserve to be overlooked. No one was up in arms when Joe DiMaggio and President Kennedy were fooling around with Marilyn Monroe. Mickey Mantle did more damage to his liver during his baseball career than the most hard-core college student could ever dream of doing. But, back then, it didn't matter.

Granted, calling celebrities and athletes "heroes" is certainly a false label, but maybe that's OK right now. Everything else around us kind of sucks; maybe what we really need is a hero.



- opinion@thedepauw.com