Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods, Jesse James. Famous people, doing infamous things.  These are role models to our youth, that are not setting a very good example. However, they get ridiculous amounts of attention for behaving badly.  Is that the standard we want to set?  Is that example we are setting for young people today? Thank goodness for Judge Marsha Revel, who sentenced the 24 year old actress to 90 days in jail.  It’s about time that we make rich and famous people be responsible for their actions so all the young kids today don’t continue to grow up thinking that there are no consequences for bad choices and actions. 

It’s time to raise the standard. We need to stop giving attention to bad behaving role models.  When someone becomes a public figure they should be held to yet an even higher standard, not a lower one where they get even more attention for setting a negative example.  And when they do things that do not set a good example for young people who have made them their idols, they should get less or no attention, not more. What does it say to our youth when a rich and famous actress gets arrested for drunk driving and violates her parole and continues to get away with it?  What does it say to young men in the world when Tiger Woods is a superstar golfer, the very best at what he does, exercises extremely poor judgment and gets more media attention for the bad thing he did?  Doesn’t that send the message that bad behavior gets you a press conference, on the cover of newspapers and magazines and on the first page of every internet site known to man? Is that what we want our future leaders of the world to think?

It’s time to raise the standard. If we want to see a positive change in the world, we have to be that change. That change starts with the man in the mirror, as Michael Jackson sang it. The question is, are you setting a high standard for yourself and for those around you?  Are you being the change you want to see in the world? Are we holding those that are role models and those who have a lot of influence on our kids, teens and tweens to a higher standard… and when they don’t live up to that standard are there consequences? 

Let’s raise the standard.  Let’s join together to hold public people to a higher standard so we can raise the bar and create a world we all can be proud of.