Yesterday I read an Internet news piece about how Paris Hilton’s parents reported that their daughter passes her days in LA County just “staring at the ceiling”. What do you think she is thinking about while she’s lying there in her County issue orange? Is she thinking about climate change, do you think? Or the refugees fighting for their lives after fleeing the violence and deprivation in Darfur? Perhaps the fate of our severely wounded and incredibly brave and selfless soldiers from the war in Iraq who are lying in hospitals beds now that they have returned home with broken bodies and minds. What ceilings are those people staring at? Or maybe Paris is thinking about the Iraqi people and the terrible fate they are currently facing every morning when they wake up and stare at their ceilings, assuming there is even one left to stare up at.

Then this morning I turned on CNN to get a morning fix of wake-up news. And the programming was all about World Refugee Day. Did you know there was such a thing? I didn’t. And there was Angelina Jolie-- who has chosen to use her celebrity to bring the fate of the suffering of the world’s displaced refugee populations more to the fore of the average Americans consciousness—being interviewed by Larry King about what it feels like to hold a dying Darfurian child in her arms and comfort him as his life is slipping away. What ceiling does that child wake up and stare at each morning?

And there are lots of other examples of celebrities using their platform in positive ways. Brad Pitt helping to build sustainable housing for victims of Katrina. Leonardo diCaprio putting his time and money into the documentary The 11th Hour to bring attention to the world’s dwindling resources. Bands like Green Day, the Dave Matthews Band, Barenaked Ladies, The Rolling Stones with their “Turn Up The Heat” global warming concert, they are all moving front and center and doing things that actually make a difference. It’s a long and distinguished list and could go on for pages.

Look, Paris. We know that you are still young and have yet to find your way. But you were born into a life of incredible privilege and wealth. You have gone out on your own from that beginning and created for yourself a following, a platform from which people watch what you do and listen to what you say. And some day, Paris, your gonna have to wake up and stop staring at that ceiling. . .