When will we be able to place every politician, economic development board member, media personality, business expert, and editorial writer in favor of Curt Schilling's fiasco in front of a microphone and camera and have them explain their reasoning, apologize for their decision, and make a contribution to cover the inevitable debt that is resulting?

Rhode Island is fascinated by celebrity, perhaps because of its vast inferiority complex. Viola Davis contributes $1,000 to the library in Central Falls and makes headlines for this tiny percentage of her income. I contributed $1,000 at almost the exact same time, and didn't expect to make the ProJo for doing so!

Whether it's Richard Hatch or James Woods, we seem to be under some magic spell whenever someone succeeds in gaining fame beyond the borders of this state, with the romantic notion they can do no wrong and every one of their positive actions is wildly overestimated. (Ms. Davis is a hell of an actress, no argument there.)

I'm no fan of Governor Chafee, but he was smart enough to come out against funding the glorified game store, and our own Bob Watson, despite his other problems, had the guts to stand out alone and vote against it. We need a massive self-esteem workshop for the population, so that they can take pride in themselves and not rely on vicariously gaining it through remote association with others.