The word "role model" gets tossed around and debated so much, it's become meaningless. Charles Barkley once famously caused controversy when he said he shouldn't be a role model just because he could play basketball. That controversy always puzzled me because Barkley was absolutely correct; at the height of his NBA career, people idolized him not because he was a smart, often bitingly funny person, but because he could handle a round leather ball.

However, in actor Kal Penn I think we have a true and worthy role model. Penn's probably most famous for the Harold & Kumar movies. I enjoyed Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle more than, say, any of the Cheech and Chong stoner classics probably because the characters Harold and Kumar reminded me a lot more of the kind of people I actually smoked dope with in college. Smart people who most likely were not destined to become slacker burnout cases. With more dramatic roles in movies like The Namesake or on t.v. on House, Penn proved himself to be a versatile actor; teaching a college course on how Asians are portrayed in media, Penn proved himself to be versatile intellect.

None of this is why I think Kal Penn is a true role model, though with this resume alone one could certainly do worse. No, it had to do with his interview with Rachel Maddow on Friday. (Unfortunately, the embed code does not seem to be working; however, I encourage people to visit rachel.msnbc.com and view the clip there) In the interview, Penn explains why he left a role on one of t.v.'s top-rated dramas to take a big pay cut and work in the White House Office of Public Liaison, specifically to help see that the arts community has a voice in the White House.

What struck me was Penn's genuine commitment to public  service and his view that this job is public service--not a political plum he received by virtue of his campaigning on behalf of Barack Obama. It's not like Penn would have needed that, anyway. He views Obama as a statesman and he views his new job as a chance to make sure ordinary Americans have a place at the table. 

As we approach commencement season, I am reminded of the commencement address I heard when I graduated in 1994. The great historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was the speaker at my commencement, and his message to my class, graduating from a well-regarded liberal arts college, was to consider public service. It would not pay as well as many of the careers we were entering, he said, but it was necessary. Our country needed us, it needed our minds and energy. Schlesinger's call was a repeat of the call to action the president Schlesinger so famously served so famously issued: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."

Kal Penn, at least as far as I know, was not in the audience on that sunny May day in Vermont, but his actions prove that there are still people out there who honor the notion of public service. Penn, I know, honors the legacy of his grandparents, who marched with Gandhi for Indian independence. By doing so, he serves as a true role model not just for people his own age, but for all of us. And he didn't even need a visit from Neil Patrick Harris to do so.