By Milton Kaplan, RegainAmerica Contributing Writer, April 21, 2007

I am just a person, who is looking to express their views about the fed up condition of the people, who inhabit this piece of dirt we call planet Earth.  I am mainly concerned with the United States of America.

I was scanning the newspaper and I came across a headline that seemed to catch me wrong.  It said something like:  "Clooney edges closer to Obama".

So let me get this straight.

George Clooney, who is an actor, apparently likes Obama and, this fact is not only news, but. . . .HEADLINE NEWS?!?

I mean. . . .WHO CARES?!?

It seems to me we heap gobs of money and adulations on these people, meaning the stars, actors and executive people of the great entrainment crowd.  We push these people to almost god-like levels.  People who, when they wake up are just like the rest of us.  They suffer from halitosis and dandruff and ear hair.  They put their pants on one leg at a time.  They are not any more intelligent then us, and in many cases they are down-right stupid.  Just take a look at how they live their lives.  They are good at patting themselves on the back with their endless award shows.  But even these shows don't mean much.  For instance the Oscars are voted on by themselves, not the general public.  At least, the vote for the President of the US is, after a fashion, voted upon by the people.  (I sometimes wonder about School Boards and council members.)

Finding this headline invokes the idea of one of these people influencing us for the only reason of getting us to support a particular candidate.  Look at some of the mistakes that they can and do make.  We can make our own mistakes, we elected these officials.  Not all the choices that I have made have been stellar.  I have made some loo-loos.  But making movies, being a TV star, or having a beautiful voice, does not give you the right to tell someone else how to live or who to vote for.

I'm sure many "celebrities" enjoy their ability to perhaps sway votes to a candidate of their choosing.   It goes back to a basic idea, and that is control.  They want something for it, whether it's a night in the Lincoln Bedroom, or an opportunity to say "Look at me, my best friend is the President of the United States".

So, why are the rest of us worrying about who is going to be president over a year before we actually get around to vote.  We are listening to what is said, and it is very unsettling.  Everything that is said, is exactly what we what we want to hear on a daily, if not, an hourly bases.  The war is good.  The war is bad.  Gun control is good.  Gun control is bad.  And, of course, we get headlines like the aforesaid "Clooney" one above.

Yet we believe them!   We, the voters, who put our trust in our elected officials and give them the control over our lives, do not do the simplest of investigations.  We do not look into the backgrounds or even question them.  We listen to the daily rhetoric and dutifully make notes of the celebrities - Clooney!  Barbra!  Rosie!  Charlton!  Alec! and then blindly go to the slaughter and try to figure out what happened when the elected official goes bad, or changes what they said in the first place.

Lincoln, an number of scores ago, reiterated, ...of the people, by the people, for the people..., which said we should make our own decisions for the benefit of the people - US!

That's the American way!

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