A dad's letter to his kids' principle to dispute "unexcused absence" recently went viral after he brought his kids to Boston while he ran the Boston Marathon. In the letter, he explained how his kids benefited from the rich history of Boston, and the awesome display of human spirit and determination while watching the marathon. Cute story, and a good life lesson for us all. Kids learn the most from outside the classroom.
But then the trolls came out. They couldn't just let a nice story sit unscrutinized. They looked at Mr. Rossi's past racing credentials to determine just how he qualified for the Boston Marathon. In the digital age of information, all of this information is available, scattered across race result websites from all over. Rossi's critics point out that in no way could he have qualified legally in the time he stated based on his previous records.
Regardless of if he "cheated" his way into the Boston marathon, which is one of the most difficult races to qualifier for and the vast majority of people are forced to buy their way in by raising thousands of dollars for various charities, this incident is a perfect example of just how bored people on the internet are. Their is to be a full scale "investigation", which includes scanning thousands of photos of his qualifying race in order to time-stamp his progress to either give him validity or show he cheated in some way.
Sigh.
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