people, please

Yes, Dan - I agree. (With everything except the guns.)

I believe that high-quality work is done by people who feel passionate about at least one aspect of their jobs. I am not one of those teachers who thinks people in my profession are grossly underpaid; I think when it comes to collecting respect of the general public, we come up a lot shorter than when we collect our paychecks. Some people equate respect with pay; I think they're linked but not one and the same.

But if you want to pay me more, I'm not going to fight with you.

I think professional athletes' salaries are ludicrous, but I'll also acknowledge that the difference (one of many) between a civil servant and a professional athlete is that athletes are paid not only to put (or not put) the ball in the cup/basket/net, but also to put their lives on display 24/7. Like beautiful, mediocre singers and actors, most are celebrities whose marketable personas are of far more interest to the general public than their actual athletic skills.

So on the one hand, entertainers - be they athletes, actors, singers, or Paris Hilton - should be paid more if their decorum in public is something you'd actually want your kid exposed to, and paid far less if they are actually Paris Hilton. On the other hand, there is no price for decency.

Then there's the issue of paying a person for sharing their actual talent. How would my imaginary Commission for Celebrity Decency pay these two jackasses, for example: Lindsay Lohan (no class, no talent) and Russell Crowe (no class, lots of talent)? Ah, there goes my sliding scale.

And then again. I'm no celebrity, but here's a short list of things I can't do because I chose to become a teacher: get racuously drunk in public, dress like a hooker, date a 17-year-old, tattoo "Promiscuous Girl" across my face. Yep, sometimes it's tough, but these are the sacrifices you make if you want to be allowed to educate the youth of tomorrow.

Geez.

Michael Jordan once said that a celebrity cannot choose to be a role model - you just are one. The only thing you can choose is whether you are a good one or a lousy one. You get paid twenty million dollars to be a household name with no discernible talent, when you leave the house you keep your damned pants on (and stay off Oprah's couch.) Is that so much to ask?