Celebrity Oblige

Once upon time in this great city of New York and in all the metropolises of the world there existed a class of people we shall call, for lack of a better word, "society". In some countries access to this social strata was limited by birth, in others by finance. But regardless of how they got there it was understood that, as the adage says, to whom much is given much is expected. Hence, nobles fought wars, grande dames and dowagers did charity work, robber barons played philanthropist. Somewhere along the line all that changed and so died the concept of noblesse oblige. Gone are the days when power, prestige or wealth carried with it an implied responsibility to maybe give a crap for one's fellow man (even if that fellow man was your victim to begin with). Or at least pretend. People now are famous for the stupidest, emptiest reasons conceivable. And even though their grip on this adulation is faint at best they still refuse to do anything that might in some way make them worthy of what they've gotten for nothing.

I refuse to think that anyone owes anyone anything (barring the notable exception of parents to their children under the age of 18 but we all know how well that usually turns out). And so I'd never say that the rich are responsible for the poor or the talented for the useless. It's just that it doesn't seem sporting when celebrities don't have the kindness in them to throw the teeniest bone at the imbeciles who worship them.

The Kennedy family, for all their faults, have a history of public service. The eldest son died in the war (he crashed after volunteering for a suicide mission-and he was the lucky one). Two sons murdered while in or on their way to the presidency. We'll get to Teddy later but really, did Massachusetts need one more pregnant Polish girl? I think not. Imagine the sacrifices of some of the next generation of Kennedy kids (just like Star Trek TNG, just not as good). All kidding aside, imagine having to fly out of an airport named for your dead father. Jeez. Poor J.F.K. fils had to be cremated and buried at sea so that he would finally have some privacy and peace.


What the hell have the Hilton's done with themselves? Philanthropy?-well they saved a lot of people a lot of money on hookers but other than that, not so much.