In light of the Jason Cook arrest it is a good time to remind everyone how poor of a choice it is to look up to a celebrity. Celebrity (politician, actor, musician or athletes) image is what their public relations agent develops for them. It is not what they really are, but what they want you to think they are. If you admire Jason Cook, President Bush, Bill Clinton, Toby Keith, Jeff Gordon, Michael Jordon, Brett Favre, Mia Hamm, Condi Rice, etc. you admire their public image. You really don't know the first thing about them. My advice... stick to people you know. Your family, co-workers, minister, teachers, etc. Admiring national celebrities is setting yourself up for major disappointment and living in a dream-world.

Even people you know and respect are going to screw up. Everyone does and everyone will. To label anyone a bad person because of a stupid action is jumping the gun. I think we all need to sit back and see how things play out, hopefully he will learn from this just as I have learned from many, many mistakes. As for role models for my kids, I choose to emphasize people that we all know in our circle of family and friends, and guess what, some of those people have screwed up and they have overcome and improved thier life.

Whuuuut??!! Toby Keith's my HERO!! Weeep woooo!

AND Bubba Clinton's my hero!! Ain't that right?

Talk about grouping people. Sorry, but I have rolemodels from different kinds of lives, and they're my rolemodels because of what they do, not what they work with. I admire the personality and their actions, I have never once admired a celebrity just because they're a celebrity.

My hero's include Deidre Hall, my parents and my grandmother. Hall went from an average girl from Florida to America's Sweethart, that people can look up to and take an example from. She's had so much against her in her life, but she's dealt with it with class and a loving heart. She worked from the bottom to the top. I admire her for commiting to something and sticking to it, not swaying back and forth. She's worked tirelessly as an advocate for children's rights, she's flawed and she has no problem admitting it, she doesn't try to be someone she's not. Too many people do, almost everyone does - entertainment business and otherwise - I admire her for that, not the fact that she's famous. Her fame grants her the ability to help people, she should be commanded for taking advantage of it to do something good instead of doing what other celebs do, use it to further themselves. My parents for working damn hard for everything they have in life, they have never gotten anything for free, for working 100% and at the same time being 100% devoted and amazing parents. I admire my grandmother (dad's mom), who raised 6 children on her own, took care of her mother and father-in-law while my grandfather was a full-time fisherman. And now she still always puts everyone else before herself, she's an amazing grandma and she's one of the few people I know of who'll always listen.

A true hero is a person who fails, admits their flaw and then works twice as hard to accomplish it. All of the people I mentioned above have done that. They've had so much against them in their life, but they never gave up.

I hardly think Cook would count as a rolemodel. He's in his early 20s right?

I hardly think Cook would count as a rolemodel. He's in his early 20s right?


Age doesn't prevent someone from being a rolemodel. I know people in their 20's who are remarkable people, my little brother is one of them. People who build their lives to mean something overcoming challenges.

While I agree that I have never read anything that would lead me to consider Jason Cook a role model type it has nothing to do with this age.

I know, I know several people who've accomplished a lot. But Cook ain't cutting it. He's done nothing 'remarkable', he's not a good actor, has a bad rep with past behaviour.

Actually Cook has done some admirable things such as work for charity. Does that make him a role model? Maybe to some, maybe not. I do think that even if someone is a role model perfection cannot and should not be expected. Everyone is human and to err is human afterall.

charity thing frequently with no mention from the press and no mention from him. He could make this a huge deal and let the soap mags know everytime he does something good but he doesn't. To me that speaks volumes. Look at the events of this past week. He asked for no monetary reward from these people, his flight was paid for and that was it. He took a red-eye after working a long day at the set of his show and went right into a telethon that lasted the entire weekend. All of this done without him calling the mags to let them know what a great person he is, it was done because this is where his heart is. What he did was not right nor do I condone what happened. What I do believe is that we all make mistakes, there have been many things I did as a younger person that I am not proud of. I think to judge anyone's life or worth as a person or character on one minor event is greatly overreacting. If you are looking for the perfect role model, stop now and save yourself the dissapointment.

I don't know if I would call Jason a role model. For some people he may be. But I do know that Jason is a really good person. Good people can make mistakes, and we can all learn from them.

Unfortunately, the bad things we do are often remembered over the good things. Don't forget why Jason was in Des Moines- a charity event for sick kids that he has done for the past four years. He does many of these events that you will not normally hear about. He was also a confirmation class teacher, when he had more free time. He also is very close and devoted to his family. He said many times that the reason he works so hard is for them.

There is no excuse for what Jason did. He will pay dearly. I know that no one feels worse about what happened than he. But, none of us is perfect. We are all tested in our lives. I believe that Jason will make amends and get his life in order and pass this test.

There is an article on the brain in the most recent issure of National Geographic. In it, it says that the brain is not mature until 25 and essentially only the car rental people (who won't let you rent a car until you are 25) have it right since you can drive at 16 and drink at 18 or 21 (depending on where you live). And of course vote, marry etc. at 18 when you are still not mature.

So Jason, you are ALMOST grown up. No more stupid mistakes, okay?

Give him a break. My message was about having a celebrity as a hero. I once heard a person say that President Bush is not real smart, but he has a good heart. How would anyone know whether he is smart or not. Or for that matter have a good heart or not? All you know about Bush or any celebrity is the carefully crafted image of their PR people. Lots of celebrities do charity work because it looks good to their public, not because they really want to. Charity, along with religion, is one of the ways celebrities fool their public from their true nature as selfish, immature, rich scum-bags. The truth hurts... doesn't it? Stick to admiring your family and friends...

you're my role model!! And although I say that facetiously, there is a lot I admire about you, even though I can't say I honestly know you. In fact, there are a lot of people on this board that I admire for a lot of the same qualities, which would be (in no particular order):
1. Sense of humor
2. Intelligence
3. Honesty
4. Directness
5. Ability to realize that just because other people don't agree with you that they aren't automatically wrong and stupid.

I'm sure there are others that I don't know about (you may be exceedingly good-looking to boot!) but I really wanted to say that I appreciate the you, and the other people on this board who express their opinions and make the board fun to read without inciting bad feelings or other trollish behavior (and I can't begin to name all of you, because there are far too many, so if any of these above qualities apply to you, just count yourself in!)

And don't ask me where the warm fuzzies came from, because I'm not that type of person, but I just really wanted to let you know.

It seems a lot of people are reacting with a hollier than thow attitude about this. He was intoxicated, he had a pipe, he was argumentative. Can every person who doesn't condone his actions, and is shocked by his actions, and feel they can no longer respect him, truly and honestly say that you have never done any of those things, or at least something that you are ashamed of? I sure can't. Does the fact that I have done some of these things in my past make be a bad person today? No. Did it make me a bad person then? No. Did it make me someone who was young and made a stupid mistake? Yes. Did my family and friends loose respect for me and feel like I had done something so horrible that I could no longer be respected? No.

I guess what I am saying is you can not judge a person by a single event when it is a small as this is. It is the Internet and the Forums that have taken this from a small incidence in a mans life and turned it into thos horrible, intolerable incident.