Artist as Activist

The snippet of The Colbert Report today reminded me of another story the show followed last July concerning the United Farm Workers, Take My Job campaign. UFW challenged any American to work as an immigrant farm work for one day and Stephen Colbert rose to the occasion. From this experience, Stephen Colbert had the opportunity to speak on Capital Hill concerning issues of immigration. This is the link to that video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy25NFH69gk

Although I am extremely pleased with the attention The Colbert Report brought to the issue, I worry the humorous heavy tone of his statement on Capital Hill took away from the seriousness of the topic. Especially because I assume the public did not continue past Colbert's opening statement and watch the actual question part of the hearing. It is during this section, where I believe Colbert truly shined. I have much respect for Colbert and his passion to participate and educate the public on this social issue. His closing statement to the Congresswoman should be every artist's top reason for becoming political in the public domain.

The bottom link is a CNN article about the Take My Job campaign and Colbert's involvement.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-24/politics/colbert.house.immigration_1_undocumented-farm-workers-migrant-farm-labor-foreign-workers?_s=PM:POLITICS