Time's Choices Could Have Been More Inspired

I think that it's great that Bono and the Gates' donate millions of their dollars to those who are less fortunate. But it is hardly a reason for them to blessed as Time's "Persons of the Year." Just because somebody gives some money away does not make them more or less important than any other individual. Michelle Malkin makes an poignant observation:

Interesting, isn't it, that Bill Gates didn't deserve the honor when he was actually creating something, but only earns Time magazine's highest praise when he's giving his money away.

The People who mattered are not much better either. Why did Geena Davis matter in 2005?; she was on a poorly written, poorly acted, awful television show. I have never understood why Cindy Sheehan ever mattered? Time writes:

Who would have thought that this mother of a soldier killed in Iraq could spoil the President's vacation —and become spiritual leader of the antiwar camp? Keeping vigil outside Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch for nearly a month, Sheehan became a folksy celebrity: a hero to some and a villain to others.

Kanye West's major claim to fame was to accuse the President of the United States of racism. Nobody has asked this tragically untalented performer how much he helped the victims of New Orleans.

At least Ray Nagin mattered, if only because of the lives lost because of his mismanagement of New Orleans during the evacuation.

Unfortunately, Time's Person of the Year award, and the recognition of those who mattered, often times has little do with the people who truly made a difference during the preceding year. As Ed Morrissey writes:

The true newsmakers this year, as Michelle Malkin notes in photos, were the people who went into the streets and overthrew dictators and autocracies in order to gain freedom for their nations -- in most cases, through non-violence. Ukrainians had their Orange Revolution; the Lebanese forced the Syrians to beat a hasty retreat across the Bekaa Valley after 29 years of military occupation following the murder of a pro-freedom statesman; and Iraqis faces bombs and death threats three times to in voting for a democracy and a new constitution to replace a genocidal tyrant in the heart of the Middle East, the first time that has ever occurred in an Arab nation.

Pick any of those examples, or roll them up into one pro-democracy movement that has tyranny on its heels throughout Southwest Asia and North Africa. Those were the real newsmakers this year. Instead, Time decided to go as obscure as it possibly could and picked three fine people whose impact on 2005 will have us all wondering what the hell they did to deserve the cover of Time by 2007.