In this Celebrity Society

My friend Marc Bridge released his album "American dReam" at the same time as Perry's Sweet Ride. I said at the time that I loved and admired Marc's music. A few songs of his are particularly brilliant. One of them precisely speaks to an issue that perpetually drives me nucking futs. The song is called Celebrity Society. With Marc's permission, I'd like to quote his lyrics:

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Brittney’s hair, or poor Anna Nicole Smith's drama gets more headlines than Darfur
A crooked chef spends a few months in striped pajamas Now her net worth only soars!
A President, or Governor of California How much higher can you get
from “Pumping Iron” or acting with a chimp named Bonzo who’d have thought to make that bet?
American Idols get more votes than politicians
Now that’s such a telling sign
Instead of lying, get on TV and belt a tune out and watch the voters stand in line

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Marc's got it exactly right. Nothing personifies this societal madness more than the saga of Jon and Kate Gosselin, a completely dysfunctional couple with entirely too many children. That went well. They're divorced, and it seems nothing in the press is mentioned about what's going to happen to the innocent children. Or how about Michael Jackson: the sad, strange pedophile who became a parody of himself while trying to resurrect his performing career, only to die of a drug overdose that he ordered his doctor to administer. The fact that the doctor was so cowed by Jackson's celebrity that he completely ignored his own sense of professional ethics speaks volumes. Then there's the Octomom (I love the line from a friend of mine: "it's a vagina, not a clown car"). Or Balloon Boy and his pitifully desperate parents, concocting a publicity stunt to score a new reality series.

Here's my point: those stories are fluff. They're not the news. Eating parsely and ignoring the actual entree leads to malnutrition. I know the goings on in the House and Senate on Health Care Reform aren't sexy, and in fact they can be opaque and boring as hell, but they're going to affect every single one of us. Same with negotiations on new climate treaties (did you know the Kyoto Protocols are going to expire and NOTHING is taking their place for now? That means the US, China, and every other damn country in the world can pollute the air to their greedy hearts' content and nothing would stop them. Doesn't that bother you?).

I never got the worry endlessly about worthless shit like who Jennifer Aniston is dating now that she's been dumped by.....gene. And I have to admit I don't care who Lindsay Lohan is flashing or what reality star just landed in jail again or even whether American Idol's voting is rigged or whether Ellen Degeneres is going to be a good judge for the next competition. I also don't understand why people who DO care about that stuff can't name their own governor or even one member of the US Supreme Court. I'm concerned about whether the state of Maine will limit the rights of its citizens to marry. I'm concerned that Massachusetts is in such a horrible financial hole that human services programs like homeless shelters, child care and gang prevention programs are being slashed. The country's infrastructure is rotting out from the inside, people are STILL losing jobs, and CNN's doing a story on Chaz (formerly Chastity) Bono's recent sex change, and how he loves being a man. How nice for you. Now go away.

Honestly, there are important things going on in the world. Check 'em out!