Arsenio Hall

Do you remember Arsenio Hall?  Used to have that late-night talk show?  Audience in the "dog pound" would bark at him? 

Eh, you had to be there.

And this one time, he had Eddie Murphy on the show.  And although the Arsenio Hall Show was much more of an entertainment show than a political show (Arsenio was not exactly the Jon Stewart of his time), Arsenio asked Eddie about voting in the upcoming election.  And Eddie said he didn't vote.

Eddie's excuse for not voting was that elections are all fixed anyway and your vote doesn't matter (an excuse that sounds rather more plausible now than it used to -- Arsenio was off the air long before hanging chads and Diebold machines).  And Arsenio did not let him get away with it -- told him that he was a role model for a lot of young people and he should encourage them to vote, rather than modelling a cynical attitude that would just perpetuate under-voting by the young African-American demographic.

Good for him for standing up to Eddie Murphy -- who was both a friend of his and a much bigger star -- on national TV.  Boo to Eddie Murphy for not giving a damn.

I gained a lot of respect for Arsenio Hall that day.  Woof!  Woof!  Woof!