Dear “The American People”
Dear “The American People,”
It’s way past time for Congressional term limits.
You hear politicians on TV refer to you all the time. “The American people want this, the American people don’t want that.”
Have you figured out yet our elected representatives are not nearly as concerned about what’s best for “the American people” as they are with political posturing, party warfare, and above all these things…re-election? There’s a reason for that. They’re professionals.
You can’t blame them. Being a US Congressman or Senator isn’t bad. Even though Ben Franklin didn’t want to pay them at all, rank and file members make $174,000/year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid makes $193,400, and Speaker of the House John Boehner makes $223,500. They can start drawing a pension at age 50, but only if they’ve served 20 years. They have to serve at least 5 years to get a pension at all. The amount is based on how many years they serve.
So as you can see, our system has very much been changed to attract, foster, and reward career, professional politicians only. They’re only doing what we incentivize them to do, which right now is to remain in office until they literally pass away.
This flies in the face of how things were supposed to be, a government of and by the people, citizen representatives who serve their country, then return to their homes and businesses. It’s not a quaint, antiqued idea. Representatives who don’t have to be consumed with raising money, demonizing the opposing party, getting bought off by and paying off the right lobbyists, or making bureaucracies bigger so they’re more “needed” would actually be completely free to put the American people first.
The argument is career politicians are needed to deal with the complexities of today’s government. Okay. So technically that means no one new is qualified to serve. Congratulations, if you have a desire to temporarily serve your country, you’ve been locked out of the system. And isn’t the fact that government is so unmanageably complex a rather large chunk of our problem? Who turned it into this monstrosity? You guessed right, career politicians. Works for them.
The argument for Congressional term limits is playing out before our eyes right now. If it hasn’t scared you to death, you’re past due for a good scaring. The financial precipice our “leaders” have brought us to is nothing short of a threat to national security, every bit as lasting and damaging as any underwear bomb.
The Presidency has term limits to protect us from the tyranny of an all-too-powerful head of state. The Congress now represents an institutional tyranny with a strangling grip on America’s progress and growth. The way forward is to break that grip and return governing to those who are interested in serving and wholesale uninterested in embedding themselves indefinitely into an imminently corrupting system.
Governors of 36 states and 4 territories have term limits. Do not let anyone tell you Congressional term limits aren’t feasible, wise, or can’t get done. It’s actually one of the few areas where there is true bi-partisan agreement. A September 2010 Fox News Public Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters showed 74% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans favored term limits. That was before the crippling, dangerous stalemate and risk of government collapse we’re facing today.
We must rescue these “honorable” ladies and gentlemen of the Congress from their inability to simultaneously serve the country and themselves.
Love, Mike
Dear Lindsay Lohan
Dear Lindsay,
Being 24-years-old and facing prison time must be like getting hit in the face with a cold bucket of water. The thing is, maybe you needed to get hit in the face with a cold bucket of water.
Just because our kids watched you in movies doesn’t give us a right to tell you how to live your life. Still, my instinct is to care when I see someone headed over a cliff, especially someone as young and accomplished as you. Jail might be the thing that keeps you from flying off that cliff, I don’t know. Given prison overcrowding, you won’t spend 90 days locked up. But if you do 90 days in inpatient rehab, you might just have a shot. At life I mean, not a shot of Jager.
You’ll resist treatment unless you’ve made a genuine, personal decision the path you’ve chosen up to now leads to nothing but self-destruction. That would be so typical “child-star” of you. You’re better than that. Yeah you’re surrounded by people who say they love you and want to party with you. But if you self-destruct, you’ll be a headline for a few days, and those people will move on along, and you’ll be gone. You’ll have robbed yourself of the joys real life (sober, non-Hollywood real life) has to offer.
You’re defiant, we get that. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t wear fingernails to court that say, “F*** you.” You tweeted it’s just fashion and had nothing to do with the court. But if your judgment was that it was the best thing to do in that time and place, even you have to start questioning your judgment. It’s critical you be shocked out of the pattern you’re in.
And while it’s about personal responsibility, I do apologize for the hand we had in your undoing. We set up a society where we treat celebrities as if they were nothing short of Gods. We get nervous in their presence. We cry. We scream. We reach out and try to touch them or their clothing. We yell out their name. We make posters praising them and wave them in the air. We adorn them with riches beyond mortal imagination. We write letters thinking they can heal us or fix any problem. We construct idols to them. We evangelize for them.
Did I leave anything out? We, in every way, literally make them our Gods. It’s about the saddest, most pathetic thing you’d ever want to see. And I’m not just talking about George Clooney here. We treat Snookie from Jersey Shore that way. How low does our collective sense of self-worth have to be to think our lives are any less valuable or worthy than Snookie’s?
So it’s no wonder you think you should be able to get away with what others can’t. It’s no wonder you think everything should be the way you want it. It’s no wonder you think the rules are different for you, and that there are no consequences for you. Human beings weren’t meant to be Gods. Fame is a mental illness, an abnormal assault on the mind. No wonder stars drink and do drugs to cope. How lonely being a God must be.
Rise above us and your demons, and start constructing a life that’s safe, and clear, and positive, and real. You’re young with an obvious strong will. You don’t have to be typical, this could be a turning point. Take it.
In 1992, when you were around 6-years-old, you came onto the scene in a bit on David Letterman’s show. You played a trick-or-treater dressed as garbage. Don’t let yourself go out that way.
Love, Mike
©2010, The Stiles Company, LLC
www.mikestiles.com
Dear Damon Evans
Not your best week, huh? You made some bad choices. Make those choices long enough, and eventually your house of cards comes crashing down. The sad thing is, for you and everyone else who makes bad choices, it’s not until we get hit with horrific consequences and it’s too late that we seriously start changing ourselves as a person.
You’re finding the public barely has compassion, forgiveness, and redemption in their vocabulary. They need to see you lose your job. Are you any worse of an athletic director today than you were the day before your arrest? In practical matters, no. You could even argue this experience gives you “cred” with athletes who get in trouble with alcohol, giving you the right to show them the right way.
But understand, our society is built on a foundation of self-righteous, pious lies. People who’ve driven intoxicated hundreds of times are among the voices calling for your head. People who’ve disrespected their spouse thousands of times are among the ones calling for your head. Because they haven’t been caught yet. That’s why you’re taking so much heat. You violated the unspoken deal in which you can do whatever you want, just don’t get caught.
Here’s where my sympathies are with you. It’s not against the law to have red panties in a car with you. Why did the officer question you about them? And it’s not against the law to be in a car with a woman who’s not your wife. The officer had no business who she was. Unfortunately, she made a real scene and made it his business.
The highly public report includes all kinds of lurid details such as the fact you cried. I don’t remember crying during an arrest being illegal, but apparently it’s highly relevant. You’ve discovered the public wants its news as steamy and exciting as TV reality shows. They want the heroes and villains clearly defined, so they’ll know who to love and who to hate. Law enforcement and the media are only too happy to oblige. Your behavior put you into that trap.
Which brings me to where my sympathies are not with you. A good rule of thumb is, don’t do anything with a woman you wouldn’t do if your wife were there with you. Another good rule of thumb, don’t wait until after you’re wasted to make judgment calls. Being drunk makes you vulnerable in all kinds of ways. Finally, you thought your status could get you out of this. It can, other people with status do it every day. But that really pisses people off.
Should you have lost your job? Bill Clinton committed far greater personal and professional fouls by getting serviced by a young intern just off the oval office, then committing perjury under oath as President about it. Not only did he not lose his job, he’s widely adored. As you’ve seen, the public has a different set of rules for Bill Clinton than for you. Not sure why. Like I said, the public chooses its heroes and villains, and commits to their choice.
So now that you’re not a public official anymore, now that you don’t have your prestigious, high-paying job, now that your marriage is in possible jeopardy, now that you’ve suffered public humiliation, now that you’re facing the legal consequences of your arrest…you’re probably feeling really down and hopeless. Don’t.
This is no longer about the villagers storming the castle with lit torches screaming “burn the monster.” That’s just public theater. Drown out those voices and focus on the personal changes you want to make. Let the pious do whatever they need to do to keep their illusions propped up. Let state legislators (none of whom have ever driven drunk or messed around on their spouses I’m sure), get to work on the “no red panties in a car,” and “no crying during an arrest” bills.
This is about you now. The changes you make from here can be positive and make you an infinitely better man. Don’t let this pain go to waste.
Love, Mike
Dear budding Atlanta actor,
1. Speak to a friend who was a movie extra. Get “the bug.”
2. Be an extra in a movie or TV show. See the lights, cameras and sets and decide you have a “calling” to be an actor. It’s your destiny.
3. Revel in telling friends you’re “working” on a movie in town. Relentlessly tell people on Facebook what time you have to be “on the set.”
4. Bitch with other extras about how you’re not getting the respect you now deserve.
5. Convince other extras you’re not like them and you’re only doing extra work until you decide which agency to go with.
6. Take classes, not that you need them, but to round out your resume. Feel good about how your being in the class is probably a big help to the less talented students.
7. Go to every industry function held and network like mad, certain someone has a “huge break” in their back pocket for you.
8. Keep up with every movie and TV show shooting in the state, certain this knowledge will give you an edge.
9. Do a speaking role in an unpaid student film. Carry yourself when it’s done as if it were the premiere of the new “Hobbit” trilogy. Expect everyone you know to come see “your” movie.
10. Get headshots made. Show them to everyone you come in contact with, including hot dog vendors, for opinions of which shot is best, as if anyone cares.
11. Get signed by an agency. Immediately inflate your expectations and assume you will be a co-star with George Clooney within weeks…without question.
12. Drop in on your agent frequently. Really, really frequently. When you’re not there, call just to say “hey” or send them emails alerting them to all the movies and shows shooting in town you found out about, as if they don’t know about them.
14. Bitch to everyone who will listen that your agent isn’t sending you out enough.
15. Book a commercial. Do constant cleverly veiled passive-aggressive Facebook posts that don’t seem like blatant self-promotion, but clearly are.
16. Realize at the end of your one glorious day of doing a professional shoot, you’re starting completely over and have to audition and book something else.
17. Be shocked commercial casting directors aren’t calling your agent to check on your availability.
18. Delight in family and friends’ comments about you being an actor. Fein humility when they ask for an autograph and say, “I knew you when.”
19. Maintain a highly flexible (translated: low pay where frankly, on any given day you aren’t even needed) job that frees you up to audition and do gigs should you book them.
20. Borrow money from your parents.
21. Start hating your headshot. Pay to get new headshots made.
22. Pay top dollar for a special workshop with a casting director who you are absolutely convinced will “discover you” for $800. Remain undiscovered.
23. Borrow more money from your parents.
24. Struggle in conversations to sound like things are going fantastic.
25. Do a film that gets entered into a festival, getting you a credit on IMDB. Immediately take this to mean you are Reece Witherspoon’s peer.
26. Open a side business to support your acting career, usually something fitness-related or making hand-crafted things.
27. Learn how hard it is to grow a business when you don’t even really want to be doing it.
28. Borrow more money from your parents.
29. Time for more headshots!
31. Say the 3 lines you have. See how it’s cut down to 3 words when the show airs. But who cares…you are an actor on national television!
32. Debate whether or not to join SAG now that you are such a professional working film and TV actor.
33. Realize the next day you’re starting completely over and have to audition and book something else.
34. Borrow more money from your parents.
35. Get angry and resentful toward anyone, including your now broke parents, who suggests you at least re-examine chasing this dream.
36. Repeat.
Love, Mike
Tags: Acting in Atlanta, acting workshops, actors, actresses, Atlanta, Atlanta acting classes, Atlanta acting workshops, Atlanta casting agencies, Atlanta film production, Atlanta headshots, Atlanta talent agencies, casting agencies, film, film school, Mike Stiles, stage, Stiles, talent agencies, theater, theatre, video production