Celebrities are people, too

Eating a meal that contains both corn and mashed potatoes is a harrowing ordeal for me.

The utmost care must be taken to ensure those two foods don't mix on my plate. I don't subscribe to the "it all ends up in the same place" theory. It's junk science -- my taste buds are in my mouth.

I know, it's a viewpoint on eating most Americans think is crazy. You know, they go together like ... well, I won't get too lame and clichŽ here. It's too easy and I've already gone far enough.

But when it comes to entertainment and politics, I get a little inconsistent. As do most of us. I have absolutely no problem with hearing my favorite celebs tell me just how stupid Bush's Iraq war policy is, or vice versa. I don't like Toby Keith, but that's because of his shoddy country music, not because he likes W.

Our recent election reminded me just how nasty Americans can get when they see celebs shoot off about politics. I think Rush Limbaugh probably said what a lot of people were thinking when he made fun of Michael J. Fox. Sad but true.

But the truth is as follows: celebrities are people, they are Americans, they live in this democracy, and they have a position of influence that allows them to get their ideas out to large numbers of people. Now what is wrong about that?

To Fox -- who has Parkinson's disease -- and Sheryl Crow -- a cancer survivor -- Amendment 2 was an issue of major importance. Stem cell research is an issue that affects them personally, and so they had strong opinions on the issue.

The issue was also important to Jeff Suppan, Patricia Heaton, Kurt Warner and the dude who played Jesus in "Passion of the Christ," but for other reasons. I didn't hear much criticism of their point-of-view here in Southeast Missouri, but that's beside the point.

To the Dixie Chicks, the war was a big issue back when Natalie Maines spouted off a derogatory comment about Pres. Bush at a show in Britain. After all, war kills people -- it should be a big issue for everyone.

However, they were castigated for speaking out about their beliefs -- as were Fox and Crow, by some people. They were demonized, they were called some very ugly names, they were told to "shut up and sing."

But the fact remains, free speech is one of the most important foundations of American life. Without it, freedom simply would not, could not, exist.

Sure, the Chicks had to count on a backlash. Country fans are mostly conservative. They had to count on slumping sales and low airplay. What they didn't have to count on was name calling and death threats. Just like Fox didn't have to count on some callous radio host making fun of his condition.

We have a mashed-potatoes-and-corn problem in this country -- we don't like our celebrities and politics to mix. I've seen the problem firsthand. My family hates Sean Penn and George Clooney because they're loud liberals.

But this is America, a democracy that prides itself on free speech. So who are we to tell celebrities they can't use their access to media to advocate people and ideas they believe in? No one.

Reality tells us that the more we demonize celebrities for talking politics, the less likely they'll be to talk politics. Some people say that's a good arrangement, but it's not.

Political dialogue is important to maintaining the very essence of democracy, so why count someone out of the dialogue because they're a celebrity? Would we castigate a janitor for speaking his political views? I hope not.

The more we discourage celebrities from talking politics, the less they will. The ramifications are not pretty. My generation proves that.

People my age are less active in politics than ever. Looking toward the future, the younger generations are trending toward even less political involvement. We're staring down the slow death of democracy.

Instead of politics, what do we care about? The new Toby Keith song, the newest Sean Penn movie, Brittney Spears divorcing K-Fed.

Maybe politically minded celebrities could turn some of those kids on to politics, make them realize what it means to be an American. But they can only do that if they can talk politics.

Judge your celebrities based on their entertainment cred, not their political views. Remember, they're people, too.

Matt Sanders is the Arts & Leisure editor at the Southeast Missourian and the editor of Off Magazine.