1. She has been indoctrinated in the belief that her country hates her, systemically discriminates against her, and that nothing can possibly be done to ameliorate that.

In her defense I would ask...how do you brainwash someone into believing her country hates her, and then ask her to put on the very colors of that country and represent it?

Simply because she is black her alleged supporters overly inflated her place in society...not because of the athletic greatness which was unquestioned, but because of the diversity she represents.

She shouldn't have had to be the great black hope. She should just have been able to be the greatest American gymnast. I don't blame her for that. That is the responsibility of those in society who seek to divide, not unite.

2. We are making victimization its own competitive sport. To go along with the "everyone gets a trophy philosophy," there is a propensity to celebrate defeat to an almost greater extent than victory.

We coddle at the drop of a hat. In another era a coach would have pulled her aside and given her tough love. The coach might have said "you are not going to withdraw because you are the greatest gymnast this country has ever had and you are absolutely capable of going out there and performing. I won't let you quit, because I know you have the mental strength to get past this and perform. You will not quit because I will not allow you to become a quitter. I love and respect you too much."

And in the past, Simone Biles would have believed the coach.

In today's world, she was likely coddled because that's what we have turned our society into. She is being celebrated as a hero for quitting. Quitting is certainly her choice. I don't begrudge her for making that choice. It was her choice to compete or not. And it's my choice to offer an assessment. She quit. You can't sugarcoat it. She quit on her team.

Sometimes we all need to draw strength from others and in the past that strength would have been through tough love. Through instilling in her a belief that she absolutely could overcome instead of providing the easy out. And she would have been better for it.

If her coach had convinced her to compete, even if she competed and fell short, she would not live with her own internal stigma which is going to label herself a quitter. It doesn't matter what anybody else says, in her mind she quit on her team and that's what she is going to carry with her.

But it was society that created the environment that allowed her to not rise up in a moment of doubt but instead to shrink. We have allowed the spread of mental health days and safe spaces to enter into a world where indomitable will and courage is necessary to achieve greatness.

I don't blame her at all. In a moment when she needed people to believe in her, the people who could have lifted her up instead offered her a feather pillow.

As a society we are in decline. Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast in American history, quitting, is merely one symptom of a chronic and likely lethal national disease.