Apparently the huge DC rally for abortion isn’t materializing as planned. The major pro-abortion and feminist groups, plus the ACLU, have been preparing a huge demonstration in Washington to protest the Bush administration’s policies protecting fetal life. I signed up on their mailing list early on and have received impassioned letters pleading for money. One letter said they were organizing the largest march on Washington — ever.
Apparently they thought the original title, “March for Choice,” wasn’t getting the emotional response they sought, so it’s now called the “March for Women’s Lives.” (No, not the lives of the 1800 women who are dismembered by abortion every day.)
According to LifeNews.com, the planners fear the march won’t meet expectations, and have recruited Hollywood celebs to increase turnout.
This got me thinking. Does anyone trust the opinions of egomaniacal multi-millionaires like Sheryl Crow, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Christina Aguilera, and Alec Baldwin (who still refuses to keep his promise to leave America), over the American people?
Ah, nothing like a big camp meeting with all “the beautiful people”, the residents of the Great and Spacious Building! What a priviledge it would be, to attend such a rally and listen to such people mock and point fingers at those of us who not only strive to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life, but also want to see the unborn have the chance to be born, grow up, and partake as well. Sign me up! I can’t wait to see what it’s like to stand in a building that sits high in the air, with no foundation. Now when it falls…
When I worked in Washington, DC Rollcall — a Capitol Hill newspaper — ran a wonderful piece on celebrity lobbyists. They interviewed the professional lobbyists who would shepherd around the celebs who flew in from California for this or that cause when they made the rounds on the Hill. The basic consensus among the pros was that celebs were great because they would draw a crowd and generate media attention. The trick, they said, was keeping them from opening their mouth and saying anything…
I think the illuminating questions is: who cares what *anyone* thinks? Not everone else, to be sure, but in the U.S., we more or less agree that as a rule shutting people up is a bad thing.
So a celebrity does have a right to speak. Why is it disturbing that they use it?
Usually it’s because we don’t trust people to seperate the quality of the message coming from the celebrity, from their celebrity. Especially if we disagree with them. :)
There’s a thread going on over at Metafilter (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/32463#654880 ) that’s related to this, though the context is comparison between Tony Blair’s recent essay “Why We Must Never Abandon This Historic Struggle” and Terry Jones (of Python fame) response, rather than abortion.
The problem with celebrity lobbyists is that we think of them as idiots from the get go. Do they not realize that? When they make movies, we like them. But as they use their celebrity influence to promote some political agenda, let’s admit it, we just roll our eyes.
In all *fairness*, we should give them more credit. They are people too and are *allowed* to have political ideas. But somehow they are less likely to be taken seriously and that’s just one of the “sacrifices” they have to go through.