O.J. Simpson -- Americans Should Admire People Who Make Community Work, Not Just Sports Heroes

Editor, The Times:

Like many Americans, I also am fed up with all of the media hype about the O.J. Simpson trial. Some might say that I am only contributing to the media's onslaught against O.J. by writing this letter. However, I am writing in the hopes that it will be read by people who can relate to what I am saying, victims and jurors alike.

O.J. Simpson was praised by thousands of fans because of the simple fact that he was talented at a sport he loved to play. Just like baseball, basketball and hockey players, he was admired by people of every race, from every age group. Yet people are showing blind admiration toward a person that they do not know. Only O.J. and those who were close to him know what he was like off the field. It is said that he was short-tempered, easily aggravated, violent and fierce; I would not want to admire a man with such characteristics.

There are many people who are put up on a pedestal because they possess talents that are few and far between. Rarely are special-education teachers praised for their hard work and dedication to students who need them. Rarely are firefighters or medics praised for the lives that they save every day by putting their very lives on the line. And even more rarely still are hospice workers and AIDS educators congratulated or patted on the back for answering the hardest-asked questions or for loving somebody who thought they may never be loved again.

The irony of the situation is that while it is so easy to go thank a firefighter or a volunteer worker, it is virtually impossible to walk up to O.J.'s doorstep and talk with him.

It is about time that Americans start getting their priorities straight and start looking at the people who really make the community work. Start buying things from the Chicken Soup Brigade instead of buying a book or an album from an "artist" who is being tried for murder. And before you start listing all the reasons why it is hard to get out on the street and have a simple conversation with a hungry homeless person, think a little harder about how much that last concert ticket set you back.

Kate Peterson Bellevue