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Give the celebs some space

Don Rogers

The e-mailer suggested there was an old unspoken rule about not blowing celebs’ cover until they had left town, thereby preserving their privacy, since, of course, the famous come here to relax and to glitzy Aspen to be seen.

The denizens of the paper are conflicted, as well. In this corner sits a curmudgeon who thinks – perhaps jealously – that this whole fawning over celebrity thing is so, so overblown. But the readers want to know! exclaim others. Isn’t our role to tell them that the hip folk come here too?

And there’s also that cynical “price of fame” sentiment, that the performers are rich beyond measure thanks to the hoi polloi who buy their products. Least they can do is sign an autograph or two or two dozen, endure some of that awful hero or heroine worship. Some of us “regular” folk wouldn’t mind a turn fending off the masses.



But why can’t we just accept talent – entertainment, mainly – for what it is and give the performers themselves some human space? Besides, the list of the famous visiting Vail or Beaver Creek right now would stretch over 100 names we all know well if compiled.

So what? What’s the big deal about a signature, a stolen glance, an “I saw so and so” story back at the office water cooler or over a beer later? Doesn’t that kind of adulation – not to be confused with simple respect or admiration for talent – tend to denigrate the very people making a fuss over seeing someone famous? Never mind that the ones we should fall at our knees for, well, we wouldn’t recognize them if we rode the chairlift with them.

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What’s wrong with “ordinary” folk, anyway? Let the celebs be!

Called respect

Our friend the Rev. Jack Van Ens on this page espouses a view we couldn’t disagree with more. That is, that respecting another religion as our neighbor’s earnestly held faith amounts to “shrugging off Christ.”

His viewpoint is provocative, and strongly stated, no mealy-mouthed sidestepping here. And that alone is worthy of respect. Our opinion he’s flat wrong on this one doesn’t take away from the courage to speak out.

With the quailing, cringing souls who can’t put their name to the most inane opinion a rare but still too common quality among the community out there, Van Ens is a refreshing voice.

But no one gives up their honestly held beliefs by respectfully recognizing that not everyone sees things, including the eternal mystery, as they do. That’s not shrugging off anything. It’s simply respect, and the world can use more, not less, of this elixir. Verily. D.R.


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