THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501180190
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: JOHN PRUITT
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
A recent letter-writer to The Virginian-Pilot voiced a familiar lament: our fixation, as Americans, on the rich and famous.
It's certainly not a new complaint, and that only points out our continuing intrigue with the O.J. Simpsons, Princess Di's, smarmy rock figures and the oddballs who dominate radio and television talk shows. We say we detest this emphasis on status and material wealth, yet we continue our doting as if wealth and fame were the be-all, end-all of life.
How else to explain why millions of Americans would lose a night's sleep watching Simpson's car being ``chased'' in California, and wasting countless hours hanging on every detail of televised court proceedings? How else to explain our lust for every sordid detail of the royal couple's wedding woes?
And, in a local instance that stimulated the writer's perplexity, how else to explain the hoopla of the recent marriage in Norfolk of television comedian Martin Lawrence and Patricia Southall? Hours before the ceremony, hundreds of people lined up for a glimpse of the rich and famous.
``Would these same spectators be so willing to brave bad weather and use their time to help the homeless or assist a youth group?'' asked writer Susan F. Reynolds of Virginia Beach.
Good question. And the answer should make us uncomfortable. There's nothing particularly wrong with diluting daily woes by surreptitiously entering the lives of the rich and famous. But we must admit that there are more productive things than standing in health-threatening weather to see how the world's ``haves'' live it up.
Maybe it's just sour grapes that Ms. Reynolds and I share disdain for hero worship. I'm not rich - not by the glamorous measures of Hollywood, television and the tabloids - and I certainly stake no claim to fame. I don't even harbor real hope that Lady Luck will knock at my door any time soon.
But I've just about had it with the greedy and spoiled who also are rich and famous - baseball players who refuse to go to bat and hockey players who battle off the ice rather than accept wages just shy of the national debt; basketball players who convince kids that what they wear is such a big deal that some kids find it worth killing or dying for.
I'm fed up with television stars whose shoulders sag under the burden of accumulated chips and shows that depict ill manners as hilarious and violence as only an entree in the menu of life.
But there are big bucks in this stuff. And the stars and their sponsors get richer as long as we bless them with the offering of our time.
So, if we take away the rich and famous, who's left to laud? Our answers may vary, but let's try this: those who make life better for others, with no thought of reward.
Chances are you know some of them - those who check regularly on elderly neighbors; business retirees who coach young entrepreneurs; shipyard workers who are Boy Scout leaders; teachers who coax and prod until students work to potential.
Add to the list anyone who reinforces the message that satisfaction - though not necessarily wealth and fame - comes the old-fashioned way: working for it.
These day-to-day lessons are not brassy, but willingness to learn them pays rich dividends. Such instruction lasts beyond the crooks and turns of Charles and Di's divorce, beyond the cooling of the latest hot star - and even beyond O.J. Simpson's seemingly eternal trial.
Comment? Reader comments, compliments and complaints are welcome.
You may call Comment Line any time: 446-2494; or John Pruitt during work hours: 934-7553. by CNB