In today’s society, infamous behavior reaps attention, fame, and too often, great wealth. Americans can’t get enough of tabloid-style headlines concerning the infamous. Who cares what’s happening around the world! Real news worthy reports? Nah! Give us important stories, stuff we care about, like Paris Hilton’s sex video online, or the picture of Britny Spears, flashing her privates, or who’s divorcing who in the Ga-Ga Land of celebrity! These are the stories salacious, voyeuristic, Americans want!

I’d be willing to bet, if you asked an elementary school class this question today:

‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’

The number one answer would be a three-parter, ‘I want to be famous, I want a lot of money, I want to be on television.’

If asked what they would do, to earn the fame, the money, the media exposure, I bet they would answer, ‘Anything!’

I heard of Anna Nicole Smith’s death, in the company of my grandsons. As the news channel we were watching flashed the latest update on this major, on-every-news-network story, my sixteen-year-old grandson asked,

‘Aren’t her main claims to fame that she posed nude for Playboy, and eventually married some rich old man?’

I replied, ‘Well, in a nutshell, yes.’

My grandson nodded, and said, ‘Only in America, Grams, only in America.’

--Jeannine Schenewerk
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