Recently, I stumbled upon a video that caught my attention as I was scrolling down my newsfeed on Facebook. It was a video about Ashton Kutcher, an American actor, who made a recent visit to the Senate on a mission to end sex slavery. Some say that he should stick to acting; they believe it’s unnecessary for him or any other celebrity to get involved in things outside of their realm. It’s crazy to hear things like that because Kutcher is doing something extremely impactful. He talked about an instance of sexual abuse of a child and how he has two children of his own that are the same age as children being trafficked. His speech was definitely emotional, and as I was sitting there watching, I had no idea that he was involved with human trafficking, let alone the stories he was telling. I really respect that he is able to time out of acting and being a dad and I really wish others would too.
Ashton Kutcher, an actor, a celebrity and a dad, who could be doing a lot of other things in his limited spare time, chooses to be involved in something great. Yet I hear people saying that Ashton Kutcher is an actor and he should just stick to acting. In the same week that the video came out, I saw on the news that people were also saying that athletes should stick to sports instead of involving themselves in things unrelated to athletics. I began to question why people would say this. The fact that actors with so much money and maybe sometimes not even that much time would set aside the little time that they do have for a greater cause is something people should not be putting down. Ashton Kutcher has two children and a wife, I’m sure he has a lot to do and not a lot of free time, but he is passionate about something, something that really has a lot of potential to bring help to those through a cause that is sometimes overlooked. That is something really special and something that should be given some credit.
It’s definitely frustrating hearing things like, “he should stick to acting” because Kutcher is making a huge impact. He’s doing something that a lot of others have tried to do but were not successful at. His speech already reached over three million views. It speaks volumes that a celebrity would take on a challenge such as this. With their fame, celebrities have the power to take a serious cause like human trafficking to light and share it with those who are not aware of the issue.
