There are things you learn in first grade that ring true your whole life. It's better to have friends than not. It's best to not pick your nose in public. It's better to crap in the toilet than your pants if possible and most importantly if you are cute, connected and charming you can get away with murder.
The residing king of this fact is your friend and mine Carlos Irwin Estevez, better known as Charlie Sheen. I'm not saying this man is a cold blooded murderer and a criminal in all senses of the word, but it's mind boggling just how much cocaine, paid sex, spousal abuse, domestic violence, assault and criminal mischief, one man can commit and snort, without paying a price.
If Charlie Sheen looked like Steve Buscemi, his A list status would long be over; Charlie would be lucky to costar with Eric Roberts in a Hallmark Channel movie. But because of his pedigree, that jaw line and dashing smile, the world at large gives him a wink and slap on the butt, "Oh Charlie Charlie, you little cutie, what did you do this time? You know you're not supposed to hurl a chair out of a New York City high rise and drive drunk down Rodeo Drive. You know you're not supposed to punch a hooker in the mouth."
We see this all the time in ourdaily lives: the sexy coworker, horrible at their job goes unpunished solely based on their charm. The rage-aholic boyfriend who gets away with it becasue of his abs and restaurant. And if you flip through your high school yearbook I bet it's littered with past examples: the handsome quarterback breaking the law and getting a "don't worry about it, son" from the town sheriff. The Prom Queen hottie getting the easy A in history for flirting with Mr. Teacher.
I know I know, Charlie (like your high school's star athlete) is a commodity. Sheen is a cash cow for CBS, Viacom because of his work on the alleged comedy Two and a Half Men. In fact, he's the highest paid actor on TV. No amount of immortality or stupefying illegality on Charlie's rap sheet will keep him off our TV screen because he equals Profit$.
If you told Viacom CEO, Sumner Redstone, that Charlie would be glad to sign on for another 10 years provided Mr. Sheen can have his way with Mrs. Redstone whilst smoking crack and burning their mansion down to the ground, I'm certain Mr. CEO would hand Charlie a book of matches.
So the bottom line is, either we change our ways and begin teaching our pre-schoolers that good behavior and self control are the stuff of success and friends, or we continue to collectively wash our hands of it in the classroom sink, and just keep telling kids to judge themselves and classmates by the sheen of their book covers.
When my son was a senior, he showed me the newspaper that had the Prom King’s picture, proudly posted on the front page. He told me that he called the editor of that small town newspaper & told him the kid was arrested for drugs that night & they shouldn’t had that on the front page instead. The man had the nerve to tell him that wouldn’t have been devastating to the “king’s” family. My son asked out loud, “This is who I’m suppose to look up to?” as he shook that newspaper. He followed that up by saying, “Thank God I have you, to teach me right from wrong.” (GULP!) My son is now proudly serving in the Navy. The bottom line…, it is up to us as parent.
(Sorry, typo on my part; “wouldn’t have” should have read “would have”…, my bad.)
Good point. Thanks for shedding a light on this ridiculous rewards system we instill in our kids. It definitely sticks with people because I run into this attitude all the time.