This past Friday following the curtain call on Broadway for the wildly popular hit show “Hamilton” an actor who plays the part of Vice-President Aaron Burr did something I find inappropriate.  He called out to the real life Vice-President-elect, Mike Pence, who was in the audience and in the process of leaving.  After getting Pence to stop he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and read from it.  The statement is widely available online if you care to read it or see video of it, but here’s what it amounted to in a nutshell:  We are scared that you won’t protect our rights.

According to the New York Times:

“The statement that Mr. Dixon read was written by the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda; its director, Thomas Kail; and the lead producer, Jeffrey Seller, with input from cast members, Mr. Seller said.”

I don’t think any laws were violated and certainly don’t believe any legal action should be taken or threatened.  It just strikes me as cowardly that you would call somebody out in a forum where they have no reasonable chance to respond.

Furthermore, the whole thing raises many questions:

#1:  Did the guy saying the words mean the words?  He is a professional actor after all and he was doing something actors all do—reciting words others have written.

#2:  Did the whole cast agree to this?  He “acted” like he was speaking on the whole cast’s behalf.  I find it hard to believe that everybody on that stage thought this was a good idea.

#3:  He spoke about protecting “all of us”.  Well, that’s new, if it is true.  I haven’t heard of much concern for protecting the religious freedoms of those who have an honest disagreement with the LBGT community coming from the LGBT community.

I could go on, but I want to end with what Fox News reported Pence, who is not seeking an apology, had to say about the incident a couple of days later:

“Pence on Sunday said he, his daughter and her cousins “enjoyed the show” and that he “reminded them this is what freedom sounds like.”

Whether you think Mike Pence is right or wrong about a whole host of issues, I’ll tell you this—Mike Pence is a class guy.