This is what’s wrong with America
Just about all you need to know about the country in the year 2015 can be boiled down to this: Alek Skarlatos and his presence on this season’s “Dancing With The Stars” television show.
Skarlatos is one of three young Americans who subdued a terrorist on a French train in late August, thereby saving countless lives. For their bravery, the three friends were awarded the French Legion of Honor, that country’s highest decoration and one of the world’s foremost symbols of courage.
All of which means Skarlatos has gone, in the span of weeks, from Paris’ elegant Elysee Palace to a Hollywood sound stage; from shaking hands with the president of France to shaking booty with Paula Deen and Gary Busey.
Viewed another way, Skarlatos has transposed himself from the utterly heroic to the entirely superficial; from a permanent place in the pantheon of heroes to the fleeting embrace of reality-show entertainment.
But, you know what, “Dancing With The Stars” will make the National Guardsman famous. Courage and decorations from foreign governments only get you so far in 2015. Young man, get yourself on reality-television.
Reality-TV is all about the look-at-me factor, and by that standard it has taken over our lives.
Take Deflategate, which technically wasn’t reality-TV, though it had many reality-show taglines. Along with the drama of whether Tom Brady knew underlings were letting the air out of footballs and the competence of the NFL in concluding that he did, we confronted the question of whether Tom and Gisele would stay together or head to divorce court to split their many millions.
And of course there’s Bruce and Caitlyn; and Donald Trump. What’s the difference between Donald Trump and, for instance, Bill Gates?
(And by that I mean besides the fact that Gates actually created something for the larger good (Microsoft) and is many times richer than Trump and doesn’t try to hide a receding hairline by a comb-over and is not bombastic and doesn’t publicly insist everything he does is “great” and “the Hispanics and the women and the blacks will love me.”)
The difference, of course, is that one (Gates) is reality-TV free while The Donald is The King, the absolute tops when it comes to sustaining himself in the glare of the reality-show spotlight. His entire life, including his marriages, his kids, his sumptuous New York penthouse apartment, all seem scripted by a reality-show producer for maximum reality-show affect.
Is seeking the presidency the ultimate reality-show, the pinnacle of reality-entertainment? Yea, kind of.
As for Alek Skarlatos, he shouldn’t be faulted for appearing on “Dancing With The Stars.” His grandmother probably made him do it.
Besides, it’s what people do in the age of the “look at me,” “we’re number one,” confessional society we’ve become. If she were still on, you better bet he’d put in an appearance with Oprah. Alek might yet show up with Barbara Walters as “one of the most fascinating people.”
(Oh, you say, Barbara has retired? Sure she has.)
If they were still around, I bet former American French Legion of Honor recipients would have caught the reality show bug just as readily. George Patton? Yes. Audie Murphy? For sure. He went into movie acting, didn’t he?
Still in all, it’s rather disappointing. Alek and his two compatriots made such a good beginning on the hero business: they were humble and self-effacing; they attended the Elysee Palace ceremony wearing their best summer golf shirts. It was wonderfully American, evoking a time when our heroes — a lot of them at least — were unassuming and not so prone to strut their stuff.
Soon enough, Skarlatos will be “voted off” “Dancing With The Stars.” The people will have spoken.
“Goodbye, Alek. It’s been our honor to have met you. Ladies and gentlemen, be sure to catch Alek on tomorrow’s “Good Morning, America.” That’s right here on ABC.”
Ah, there is this consolation: it could have been worse. Alek might have chosen to appear on “Naked And Afraid.”
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown and is the author of two books — “Grand Salute: Stories of the World War II Generation” and “Our People.” He can be reached at grandsalutebook@gmail.com.