Drowning in the Celebrity Shallows

From My Side of the Desk:

Drowning in the Celebrity Shallows

On Monday April 30^th, The Reliable Source column in The Washington Post Style section used approximately 24 inches of column space for a gossipy paean to the celebrities who attended the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, It’s decadent-so dive on into the dinner.  The lead mentioned the “elitist and shallow, smug and insidery” nature of this event. Okay, I can accept the schmoozy recap of the celebrity-studded three-day photo-op because the WHCA is a BIG DEAL. After all, for a few hours, the President can take off his tie and relax a little. Besides, everyone needs to lighten up a bit after reading the hard-hitting first section news.  Still, the second paragraph, which told readers, “But you can’t fight it. …Just try to make the best of it, okay?”dissolved my spun-sugar dreams.

Oh, so NOT okay! Why oh why do Tinsel Town and the media continue to squander air time and newsprint pandering to every move of the Lindsays, Charlies, and Kims? Why do repeated legal issues, continued substance abuse problems and shopping on Rodeo Drive garner them ad nauseum headline status when men and women of substance, real role models, are relegated to bottom of the fold and inside pages, or an “Oh yes, before we close” sound bite? The adventures and misadventures of movie stars, pro-athletes and musicians choke the airwaves. What message are these titillating stories giving our children, be they six or sixteen?

Parents, teachers, journalists and the Internet need to be flooding discussions, the airwaves, newspapers, Twitter, and Facebook, touting the accomplishments of Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo; Muhta Kent who holds the same positions for Coca Cola, and Freeman Hrabowski, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus.  Hrabowski’s efforts in promoting the study of math and science as well as minority achievement have turned the college from a commuter school to one of national renown. In 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranked UMBC 4^th nationally, before Brown and Stanford by the way, for Best Undergraduate Teaching, placing it on equal footing with Yale.

Our children should be reading about Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of State under George W. Bush as well as Condoleeza Rice, the Secretary of State who followed Powell in the Bush Administration. The stories of role models such as Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida who very well might make Mitt Romney’s short list for Vice-President and Richard Carmona, a former Surgeon General who is running for an Arizona Senate seat are inspiring and motivational. (Read the insightful article on Carmona, a front page piece in the May 2, 2012 Washington Post). Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court and J.K. Rowlings, whose Harry Potter books propelled her from welfare status to the position of the richest woman in England, energize us. The belief all of these achievers had in themselves and their can-do attitudes move us to try, try and try again to attain our own goals.

Speaking of inspiring, the book, The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream should be core reading for secondary students.  Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt, the subjects and authors of the book (along with Lisa Frazier Page) made a pact as young boys in the Newark, New Jersey ‘Hood to become doctors, to live lives of substance instead of substance abuse and to not fall into the clutches of crime. Although the mean streets almost turned them into just three more urban statistics, they persevered; they dredged up their courage in their darkest moments and succeeded in becoming doctors.

I’m not saying that our lives should be all broccoli. We all need an occasional dose of cotton candy for balance. I can well remember my sister Sue and me scurrying to our neighbor, Kathy’s house when the mailman brought her mother the latest editions of Photoplay, Movie Secrets and Silver Screen. Knowing full well that our mother forbade us to read, “Such garbage,” we would settle into Kathy’s room with our 6.5 ounce bottles of Coke and bags of barbecued potato chips for an afternoon of reading about Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman and James Dean. This past December during my mother’s 95^th birthday celebration, we confessed our sin. Mom’s response? She just smiled her typical Cheshire Cat grin. I bet that all along she knew about our transgressions and allowed us our monthly dose of fluff.

Tinsel Town and the media I beg of you: Please do not tarnish the minds of our children with the exploits of those who have been given fame, wealth and privilege which they chose to disrespect. Instead, enrich our children’s minds and hearts with the stories of those, some whom started with so little, who elected to live lives of honor, integrity and value. None of us need to be banged on the head with the fighting of the Pick Your City Housewives. None of us need to see commercials of Mr. Charlie Fast Cars and Faster Women taunting his house arrest. None of us need to hear about Kim and Lindsay unless they have freed themselves from lives of superficiality, found a few stalks of broccoli to give their lives meaning, and become women of substance.

Until next week,

Connie
www.teachitwrite.com