Why is it that we as an intelligent society, would sit back and permit a person who is beautiful to be compensated more than a person who must come face to face with criminals on a daily basis? Why is it that we as a developed nation allow a person who has a beautiful singing voice to put more into their pocket than a person who disposes of our trash on a daily basis? And, why is it that we, an educated civilization agree to reward an awesome athlete exorbitant amounts of money, yet squabble over the salaries of our teachers? These are questions that we as that intelligent, developed educated society must ask ourselves. We not only sit back and allow this atrocity, we ooh and aah at these people and their possessions. We feed the fuels of their fires. We need to look at these people as to their importance in our society. I'm afraid the havoc that would be caused by the loss of our service workers, would be way over the loss we would have of the beautiful and awesome.

What if the movie and television stars of our great nation quit working? They would not have to worry about job-hunting like the average Joe who loses his job, although they may need to live a little less lavishly. And after having walked through the several different video rental stores, and seeing shelf after shelf lined with movie after movie, I can assure you that we would be able to watch a movie every day and not be able watch every one made to date before we take our last breath.
What if every single big recording artist quit singing and playing music? Granted we wouldn't have any new music to listen to, but after having visited Best Buy, Hastings and Borders, I feel safe in saying that there would still be enough music for every different type of genre to get their ears full.

And, what if all the professional athletes in this great nation of ours quit? Fortunately, we still have Little Guy, Junior High, High School and college sports - where there is a good chance they are still playing for the love of the game and not the dollar signs in their eyes.
Now, what if all the policeman in our nation quit? No one to enforce the laws is a recipe for anarchy. The undesirables would be allowed to run amok in our cities and towns, creating destroying our property and hurting our families.
What if all the garbage men in our terribly gluttonous and wasteful nation quit? Our homes would become full and our streets overrun with our trash they have so diligently hauled away until now. Vermin and rodents would roam our streets and sickness would invade our homes.

And, finally what if all of the teachers in our many schools ceased to want to teach anymore? Our children would become illiterate, have challenged social skills and would be running under their parents feet among the garbage and running from the people who want to hurt them.

Yes, the stars and recording artists and professional athletes all deserve to be compensated for their talents they share with those that have not been blessed. But, can you tell me why they need to be paid 1,000's if not millions more than the policeman, the garbage man and the teacher. Our children look to these icons as role models, and yet, fear the police, laugh at the garbage man and disrespect the teacher. We not only have our priorities askew, but are raising our children to have those same priorities. I feel all of our efforts must be to teach our children to be good and honest people, environmentally aware and most of all educated.

Learn more about this author, Lori Pedersen.
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