Greed turns fish tale into a scandal
The story of two fishermen accused of being as crooked as, well, fish hooks, proves yet again that the world has not run out of surprising stories.
The fisherman are accused of cheating to win the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament in Cleveland last month. The story is not just about fish; it's a saga about the American obsession with fairness.
It's about the vast number of subcultures which make up this country. In some places, professional competitive fishermen are treated like rock stars.
It's about a larger culture ― even in this age of disinformation ― that still frowns on people who jump the line.
Folks who have never cast a fishing rod in their lives, who don't know a walleye from a buckeye, are intrigued with the scandal surrounding Jake Runyan of Cleveland and Chase Cominsky of Heritage, Pennsylvania, whom Ohio Division of Wildlife officials say nearly got away with $30,000 in cash and prizes when several fish they entered were allegedly stuffed with weights.
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There's a video of the moment when their catch was cut open, revealing the weights.
Exaggerating about one's catch has always been a running joke, but it's no laughing matter to those who make their living through competitive fishing. According to reports, the duo won more than $300,000 on the tournament circuit in 2021.
If convicted, the two could do a year in jail for attempted grand theft.
Imagine being a bunkmate in the Cuyahoga County Jail or Mansfield Correctional Institution alongside killers, rapists, and gang-bangers.
Your rap? Fishy fish.
What do you tell your kids?
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If you don't think cheating matters to Americans, consider the decades-long argument over whether Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds should be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame because of suspected steroid use.
"Shoeless Joe" Jackson has been dead for 70 years, yet his athletic brilliance remains overshadowed by the Chicago "Black Sox" bribery scandal that tainted the 1919 World Series, though Jackson is thought to be innocent.
The incident resulted in Major League Baseball appointing a commissioner who kept Blacks out of baseball; in other words, people who were completely innocent paid a huge price for someone else's cheating.
We're currently caught up in maelstrom over accusations of rigged elections. Despite a glaring lack of evidence, some people still insist it's true. Knowing this, cynical politicians have preemptively planted seeds of distrust in next month's elections, which only serves to deepen the divide.
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Elections are the foundational stone of our republic. If they can't be trusted, we're dead in the water.
Now, loaded fish certainly don't rise to the level of seeing the Constitution being turned into fish-wrap, but truth and fairness remain precious commodities, without which, this country will rot from the inside out.
The story of the faked fish is really about people who followed the rules and got cheated out of a chance to compete in a fair contest because of greed and selfishness.
It stinks on ice.
Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Charita Goshay: Greed turns fish tale into a scandal
