Role Model

In the newspaper yesterday I was reading an article relating to the cancellation of the Snoop Dogg, & P-Diddy tour due to the Home Office refusing to give a Visa to one Mr S Dogg. He was quoted as saying something along the lines of' seeing that I'm a role-model to these kids, my words will have more power than a politician, or any other authority figure. I could address the shootings and stabbings that you have been experiencing over there'. I nearly burst out laughing on the train home. This so-called role model has been arrested for gun & drug possession, has a prominent role in adult movies, and whose language is courser than most. It got me thinking about role models in general. It seems to me that anyone that becomes a celebrity has this responsibility forced upon them. Some love this and will do many charitable acts, visits etc in aid of it, others deny this new found status, and carry on regardless. I thought back to when I was younger, to see if I held up anyone as a role model. Well I admired certain footballers, for their prowess & ability on the pitch, not for their behaviour or morals. Thinking back their were no Singers, Actors etc that I held up as a role model. I wonder if any one (particularly the young) do so now. It seems to me it's a tag fostered upon people by a media that in the same vain, looks for, or even engineers situations to knock these people off their pedestals. (To be lapped up by a hungry public in the Sunday papers)To have a role model that is human, invites disappointment, as often, like us they have their problems, weak areas, but are often held up as perfect. I remember watching the Magnificent Seven. In one scene one of the peasant farmers that the seven are protecting says' you are all heroes’' To which the leader of the seven replies' No you are the heroes, getting up each morning, providing for your families'. Looking back, my role models were my parents. They installed the values that have made me the person I am, for better & for worse. They were & still are icons that I hold up, in my role as a father, an employee, and as a husband