2007 The Year The Role Model Died

Once again the year comes to a close. We can all sit back and reflect. Some of us will try to find the resolve to stick to lofty resolutions; some of us will. We can look at our lives and see where we could have zigged instead of zagged.

We can also be reminded of all the surrealistically ridiculous events that managed to captivate us and our shrinking attention spans. Events that seemed designed to distract us from the very reality in which we live. A reality of war, higher and higher fuel, less jobs, slower growth. And did I mention, subprime lenders losing their shirts?

Somehow in the midst of all the real tragedy(war, tanking economy) we were force fed Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse. All young rich and out of control on drugs and alcohol. Sadly the list is longer but I cannot get to everybody.

Each story behind the person/celebrity is a sad series of events publicized by the growing media juggernaut that seems to control our very understanding of the world. However you look at it, regardless of how much glossy packaging and make-up, these are real people with real problems.

Tragic , sad, pitiful are words to describe our cultural demise. We have hit bottom(hopefully). There are no longer any people that we can trust to be beyond reproach.

I must admit I never put much stock in the moral fortitude in any of the aforementioned celebrities nor do I assume anyone else has. That is what baffles me. I want to know why we know anything about these people but nothing about why Scooter Libby is not in jail.

Why dog fighting is worse than treason?

Instead we get up to the minute updates on Anna Nicole Smith and Michael Vick.

There are no more Golden Boys. No more heroes. Honestly I am starting to wonder if there ever were. Yeah, there are everyday heroes who sacrifice day in and day out to make life move on for everyone else. They are called teachers, garbagemen and bus drivers.

Who cares what they do after work? Certainly not The National Enquirer. That is the way it should be. For our entertainers, politicians it is a far different story.

They care.

You care

Your mother cares.

Maybe the lack of privacy, coupled with a technological explosion in the hands of rabid journalist, has rendered secrets a thing of the past? Maybe the incredible influence of Tabloids has altered the landscape of journalism to the point where a boob job is news?

Maybe sometimes the truth just needs to stay a secret.

What will we tell our kids when the next 16yr old Nickelodeon star gets pregnant?

How do we explain the whole baseball mess without creating an instant teenage cynic?

Baseball, Cycling, Track and field a trifecta of American let-down. Roger Clemens, Floyd Landis and Marion Jones. I mention them because they stood apart from the crowd aside from their bulging muscles and bad temperments. Landis adamant about his innocence, Jones coming clean and losing everything. Roger Clemens? Well, he’s Roger- “say it ain’t so Rog”.

Each of these people, Clemens, Landis and Jones, are on posters on some kids wall. A wall of shame. I am cringing in fear Brett Favre ‘s meteoric resurgence this year (at 39) is artificial. But hey , he’s from Mississippi.

Sports was strange enough, however 2007 was full of hard to explain events starting with Anna Nicole Smith and ending with Jamie Lynn Spears all of them trumping the continued loss of young American lives.

It will be far easier to lower my sons expectations in our government, star athletes and celebrities than it will be to explain exactly why his hero is in handcuffs. I will sum it up perfectly for him- ‘nobody is perfect’.

The war? It is far easier to turn on a reality show than it is to explain why we are still fighting .

Here’s to the future.

I am glad it is 2008.