Don't Belittle Do-Gooders

October 28, 2006

To the Editor:

Re “ Calling All Cameras: Living Large, Doing Good ” (Week in Review, Oct. 22):

Celebrities and other social entrepreneurs play an important role in building coalitions of compassion and championing the needs of underserved and underrepresented segments of society. Too often their work is trivialized by the news media.

Instead, we should be extolling the efforts of those who work for progressive social change. If celebrities are able to inspire and mobilize, then who are we to belittle them — especially in light of our elected officials' mixed-up spending priorities and their propensity to shortchange areas of vital concern like education, health and the environment?

Ben Cohen
Burlington, Vt., Oct. 23, 2006
The writer, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's and the founder of TrueMajority, is president of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities.