And the Oscar goes to...An Obama Booster!

The annual parade of the stars comes into living rooms for so many tonight. How incredible it must be to win an award to act in a movie. Be voted the coolest of the coolest by the cool crowd, to stand in front of millions and thank so few.

On the steps of the Lincoln Monument just before the Inauguration of Barak Obama, these "most important" Americans were talking to us all about the struggles and the triumphs, which were about to culminate the following day when Mr. Obama took his oath of office.

Actors, Celebrities and Singers all reminded us how important they are, and the new administration reminded us all how important it is to be famous in the movies and on the pages of US and Star magazine. Martin Luther King III was there, a symbol of his great father’s work, a person who works toward those triumphs daily, the only one who was not an actor or performer, just a hardworking bearer of American justice and equality. And then there was the pudgy unshaven comedian Jack Black, telling us about something serious, like voting, Kal Penn, from the Harold and Kumar movies, looking into the camera, on the same stage as Mr. King, and telling us all how great it is to be an American at that moment, where were Cheech and Chong? I only wish Senator John Blutarski, could have been able to come to the stage and cry… "Toga!”

Where was the scientist that found the stem cell research solution for spinal cord injuries, in an era of no funding for stem cell anything? Where were the parents of Michael Monsoor who saved members of his SEAL Team's life by jumping on a grenade? Where was the widow of Billy Mitchuli who died on 9/11, and lost her father that same day? Where were the sacrificing Americans?

Instead we were fed a menu of “Movie Stars”. I get Tom Hanks…His heroic characters in Philadelphia and Saving Private Ryan. He is our modern day Carey Grant, John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart all wrapped into one. An Icon, who has painted pictures of the truth for us all to see, so much clearer, in his performances in important films. But Kal Penn, and Jack Black. I suppose Mr. Obama had already won, so it was far less a transgression than the organizers of the 96' Democratic National Convention made when they chose the Black Eyed Peas to perform “Lets get Retarded in Here” on the closing night. America’s indelible image of The Gore’s dancing to bad white rap ruined it for Al , not the hanging chad. (That’s another rant.)

The trouble with the inaugural pre-party was that insignificant pop idols dominated the show. Kal, Jack, Beyonce, and others were on center stage, the perceived important ones, not those that exemplify themselves day to day with no fanfare and money or fame. The selfless, those that Copland's "the fanfare for the common man" was written, they were omitted, but those that gain fame and fortune, and misbehave are rewarded with honor at the inaugural of the President. WTF!