Tiger Woods wins The Masters last month, his fifth green jacket and fifteenth major. And then there's a tweet, saying Tiger will be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
I laughed when I saw that because I thought it was a joke. And when I realized it wasn't, I laughed again, because I think the man who gives the medal realized the entire world was talking about Tiger Woods again, and he wanted to make sure they talked about him too.
But giving this country's highest civilian honor to a 43-year-old, because he won a golf tournament?
Woods isn't the youngest person to receive the Medal of Freedom. The Apollo Astronauts were younger, but they're astronauts.
But then Tiger Woods isn't just any golfer, either. He introduced the game to a segment of the population that had been told for too long that it wasn't a game for them. And now young kids of all colors, from all over the world, think they can be the next Tiger Woods.
The membership at Augusta National finally joined the 21st century, and a lot of other golf clubs have too, although not all of them. But I don't think we would have seen the changes we have if there had never been a Tiger Woods.
I'm not alone in wishing he would use his bully pulpit to shine a light on the issues many in the black community, who don't have his gift, face every day. But there's a price for that, a price he's apparently not willing to pay. And if he did, there wouldn't be any medals either.
His work with his foundation that helps children though, almost by itself, makes him a worthy recipient. And yet there are a lot of people who think his marital problems and his problem with painkillers should deny him the medal.
I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if marital fidelity was the standard for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, there are a lot of men who need to give their medal back.
I've said this before but it's worth repeating: If Tiger continues to play a round like he has, he might very well break Jack Nicklaus' record.
But if Tiger continues to play around like he has, he won't get close to Arnold Palmer's record.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, at 43, seems a bit early to me. But his win at The Masters is a remarkable story of perseverance and redemption.
And if you refuse to believe in the ability of a good man to change, then you have lost the ability to believe in the basic goodness of man. And I don't want to be that person.
But in this world we live in now, I'm finding it harder every day to keep believing that. And while I think that says a great deal about the world we live in, unfortunately I think it says a great deal more about the man I am becoming.
And I don't want to be that person either.