I know that's an odd title, but Paris getting out of jail reminded me of an article I read the The Times, and that article reminded me of one of the reasons why I believe my kids turned out as darn good as they are.
In a nut shell the article was about preteen girls being very much in the know regarding the celebrity goings on of our most outlandish celebritites. They interviewed a bunch of them and not one wasn't disgusted by them. When asked who they admired not one answered with a "shank" (although I'd rather use the phrase "clueless idiot who needs serious help"). Tops of their lists were celebrities who are taking on and getting know for taking on humanitarian efforts.
So this got me to thinking about my own familes history, starting with my grandfather. My granduncle was Thomas Hicks (go ahead and google the name with the Olumpics if you so wish), joined at the hip my grandfather was even more of a maverick, goldminer, inventor, and all around drunken crazy happy fool.
My dads probaly the most careful conservative (though he has socialist leanings having been almost starved to death during the depression) person you'd ever meet. He's so law abiding it took us a couple of years for him to convice him he wasn't breaking the law by taping t.v with his VCR. Him and mom married in their mid 30's and they were the only people each other had dated.
Then me, well I took from my dad the never stealing, being respectful of your elders thing but I certainly rebeled any other way I could. (I also got from him being longwinded regarding story telling). As I've said before my brother who was also adopted and who has alchol syndrome got into prositution as a youth and I followed him quickly behind. Our upperclass white bred society we were joined to didn't stop us from rebeling against every part of that. Pretty much anything a neo-conservative is against we took part in. Ten years in the leather community for myself with the pictures to prove it.
So why did my kids turn out ok, and dare I say it conservative?
Part of it would be simple rebellion. My dad rebelled from his dad by being the opposite of him, I rebelled by being the opposite of my dad, my kids rebelled against me by being conservative etc.
But I think my kids also had a leg up, I think this because my brothers kid didn't turn out the same way as mine. His kid is a stupid teen mom whose lucky enough that the dad's parents are ethnic and taking care of the baby, she'll be lucky to finish highschool. (not to say I did, I just also got a work ethic from my dad)
I think the leg up my kids had was the introduction of my foster daughter. Ten or so years older then they were, and heavily involved with gangs and prositution when my kids were just starting their tweens they watched Wendy make huge mistakes in her life without the abilty to join in. It seems they procesed the information and decided they didn't want to be like her. They've also watched while she put herself back together. Hence I have two girls who the last thing they'd want is to go through what she went though, their able to make clear moral choices because they know the outcome of both.
So in conclusion I do believe that the Paris Hiltons of the world may be a positive role model for the next generation, because who the heck would want to be like them? I see her as a role model for what you don't want to be, let's hope these tweens in the survey carry their feelings on the their teens and beyound,