A Warrior's wisdom

There was a time when I thought it was alright for celebrities to speak their minds about politics. Martin Sheen? Sure, great. Arnold Schwarzenegger? OK, I'll give you Arnie. Sean Penn? He's a bit of a jerk, but even jerks are allowed to have positions. I didn't believe that their opinions were right just because of their star status, but by being famous, they would naturally attract attention to some well-meaning causes. The famous have freedom of expression, just like you or me. And there's nothing wrong with expressing one's political beliefs. \nThat belief was knocked out and body-slammed earlier this month. The University of Connecticut hosted former professional wrestler, current political "commentator," and possible complete nut-job, the Ultimate Warrior. The supposedly serious lecture about the difference between liberalism and conservatism erupted into a full scale battle royal when leftist protestors heckled the Warrior during his speech. The Warrior took this as well as an admitted-steroid-abusing-former-pro-wrestler would, which is to say "not very well." \nThe Warrior's clever retaliations involved telling an Iranian student to "get a towel" and that "queering don't make the world work." There was also a pre-taped video that included four different angles of the Warrior ripping up an Iraqi flag. Students booed and the Warrior blustered. Eventually, the whole ordeal turned into a pier-six brawl.\nAs a College Republicans spokesman told the UConn Daily Campus, "We are truly sorry that the Warrior did not measure up to our standards."\nThe event went so well that the UConn College Republicans, who brought the Warrior to the university, had to send out more than 20 letters of apology to various groups and publicly apologize for the whole event. \nThe Warrior was not so apologetic. On his Web site, www.ultimatewarrior.com he stood by his statements, arguing against liberals, the College Republicans for back-stabbing him, and eventually, segued into a rant against two CR members, one of whom he called in so many words a whore of ideas. There's some more in the middle, but I couldn't read more than a paragraph without screaming and attempting to hide under my desk.\nOn a side note, the IU College Republicans brought Mr. Warrior (he had his name legally changed to that in 1993) to campus a year ago. Out of all of the possible speakers they could have gotten, they picked up a muscle-bound bodybuilder who repeatedly quotes Ayn Rand? Couldn't there be a better choice? I'm dead serious: Please, if any of you involved in bringing the Warrior to our campus are still here, please tell me why the Warrior was the best possible choice to champion the conservative cause. I'm waiting. \nThe Warrior is quite obviously an easy target for people to make fun of. After all, after spending some time reading through the writings on his Web site, I am utmost positive he is not in his right mind. (For further evidence, try and make sense of his concept of "destrucity." I dare you.) However, for some reason or another, he constantly gets speaking dates in colleges across this country.\nWe worship celebrities. From A list actors to D list former wrestlers, our culture is infatuated with what the famous people think. That includes their political beliefs. Since we attach so eagerly to what famous people are doing or thinking, we give up our own decision-making powers and follow them.\nThis is celebrity in its worst form. The Warrior has his right to speak his mind, just like we have the right to ignore him. However, we should break free of this celebrity cult by realizing that famous people are just people, too. We should think for ourselves and become our own political Warriors.