Lochte’s little lie

I have admired Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte for many years, and followed his career with interest, so his “over exaggerating” has hurt me more than it has angered me.

I think I speak for most of us. We want to take a little credit for the local boy’s achievement. Now our local boy has made a big mistake: He has been called out for lying to hide foolish behavior.

Let’s overlook his apology for the moment, and think of the act of lying itself. Not the terrible kind of lying, like the kind Lance Armstrong perpetrated for years, where lots of people were threatened and lots of people lost jobs and dreams, but the foolish lie, the kind that, according to research, 70 percent of us will tell in order to get a little money or protect ourselves, or because it feels good to spin a good yarn.

Duke University professor Dan Ariely, in his recent documentary “Dis(honesty): The Truth About Lies,” reveals many fascinating facts about our predilection for lying. One fact revealed by this amazing professor is how a whole group of people can suddenly all stop lying if it is shown to them that their enemy has lied.

Lochte is not my enemy; he is my friend. He’s also a member of the 70 percent. If Ariely is correct, what the majority of us should do is forgive Lochte and then go take a good look into a well-polished mirror. Samuel McIlrath New Smyrna Beach