Tuesday, Lafayette, Indiana

Major league baseball is on the edge of a public relations crisis as Barry Bonds is about to break Henry Aaron’s career home run total, the most revered record in the sport. The problem is that Bonds - a sullen, thoroughly disliked millionaire athlete is suspected of using steroids to enhance his performance over the past several years. If proven true it diminishes the fete and confirms the belief that he is a cheater.

Societies always respond to heroes and anti-heroes. Some individuals step up and achieve a heroic status for their courage and sacrifice for a noble cause. And conversely we also recognize other individuals whose actions have earned them the identity of symbols of evil. In most cases the person - whether sen as hero or anti-hero - do not fully deserve either the accolades or the vilification. With few exceptions, the heroes are more fallible than we acknowledge and the anti-heroes are not so thoroughly debased as we imagine. Of course there are exceptions. The psychopath Adolph Hitler and the murderer Bin Laden certainly come to mind.

But more ordinary celebrities fall somewhere in between their fame and their infamy. Which brings us back to Barry Bonds. His personality and behavior toward the press and the public have earned him his bad reputation. But his elevation to the status of national hate object is obviously an exaggeration. Even if guilty of all suspicions, his current public identity is in fact a conglomeration of several frustrations we have with all sports celebrities. Their wealth and fame demand that they behave with a modicum of humility, gratitude and an awareness of their privilege.

Woe to those who behave as if they are entitled. If we see any hint of "I deserve all this" - oh oh! They have crossed a line with the watching public. And clearly Barry Bonds has crossed that line many times over the years with his public decorum and statements. While he is certainly not the only misbehaving professional athlete, he has come to represent all of his spoiled peers. He has become an icon of distain and may not deserve any public sympathy. And as he moves in on this staggering athletic achievement he is hearing the boos and feeling the scorn.

Barry Bonds: reaping what he has sown.