Dear Hollywood

Dear Hollywood,

I normally don’t watch entertainment awards shows such as the Oscars or Golden Globes.  I assumed these events were just narcissistic self-adulation forums, but it turns out I missed a real opportunity to gain wisdom and enlightenment from Tinsel Town philosophers and sages.

Had I known Meryl Streep would take precious time out of her acceptance speech to warn the rest of us about the dangers of a Donald Trump presidency, I surely would have watched.  Believe me, I won’t miss another for fear of missing out.  But, as I consoled myself after missing an opportunity, I decided that I should thank you for sharing your wisdom and advice.

Thank you Jim Carrey, and others, for putting together a video to inform me of the evils of gun ownership.  I assume that your years of making movies where gun violence is rampant has made you an authority on the dangers of guns and law-abiding gun owners.

I’d like thank Katie Perry, Madonna, and others who took time out of their busy schedules to remind me to vote.  If you hadn’t stripped to your birthday suit, I would have assumed that voting was unimportant.  And thank you for warning me of the dangers of voting for Trump.  Since the mainstream media didn’t report any of Trump’s racist and misogynist language, I would certainly not have known.  I also want to take thank those celebrities who said they would leave the country if Trump won.  I would not have known that our Presidency would suddenly become like a third-world dictatorship just because the wrong person was elected. I stupidly thought that the systems of checks and balances ensconced in the US Constitution would have prevented it.

Clearly, I am not as educated or wise as you.  If I may, I’d like to ask a few questions so that I may become more enlightened.

1. Did you or any of your loved ones lose a job due to the increase in federal regulations introduced during the Obama administration?
2. If yes, did any of these people lose their home resulting in a stay in a homeless shelter or did they have to visit a food bank in order to feed their family (your gardener, stylist, or maid doesn’t count)?
3. Did you or a loved one lose insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act? If you were able to keep your insurance, has the rising costs of insurance premiums impacted your ability to meet your other financial obligations like car insurance, house payments, or the like?
4. Have you ever had to worry about school violence, overcrowding, or failing grades in your children’s schools?
5. When was the last time you filled out your own income tax form? If you saw how much was going to the federal government, did you wonder where it all went?
6. When you protested the racist, draconian law officers who massacre the blacks of America, did you also think to protest the 762 murders committed in Chicago last year, especially since most were black-on-black homicides?
7. I was taught in school that the Electoral College was set up so even the least populous states have a say in the presidential election process.  Did you demand the Electoral College be abolished because you knew the President should be elected only by the four or five most populous states, which, coincidentally, tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic? Or was it based on the fact your candidate lost the election?
8. When you demanded that Electoral College electors not vote for the candidate to whom they were pledged, was it because you believe the rules and laws apply only to the common folks, not liberal elites? Or were you just being a sore loser?
9. Speaking of rules and laws, do you believe that a Secretary of State President should strive to protect National Security assets and information, even if it means the inconvenience of using US email systems? Or are do those laws only apply to the “common folk”?

I look forward to being endowed with the wisdom of your responses to these questions (since I am not on Twitter, a response of more than 140 characters is acceptable), considering anyone who lives and works in the land of make-believe is obviously wiser than the rest of us.

Sincerely,

Active Thinker