Mike Rowe’s Message For Recently Shamed ‘Cosby Show’ Actor Is Absolute Perfection

Last week, someone spotted Geoffrey Owens of ‘The Cosby Show’ working at a Trader Joe’s.

The internet lit up with stories about how “far he’d fallen.”

COSBY SHOW ACTOR SEEN BAGGING GROCERY – https://t.co/j740Zzdf8x Show’ actor Geoffrey Owens spotted bagging groceries at NJ Trader Joe’s

“Cosby Show” alum Geoffrey Owens, who played Elvin Tibideaux, the young doctor who married into the Cosby family on the famous sitcom,… pic.twitter.com/grPo6dWT2Z

— Jamaicangroupiemet (@groupiemet) September 3, 2018

How is working at a grocery store shameful? The vast majority of us aren’t actors. We work regular jobs. If he’s “fallen” …do the people who shamed him think we normal Americans have always been down?

Geoffrey was on ‘USA Today’, and it truly demonstrated that he’s a great guy… and that if anyone should be ashamed, it should be the people who tried to shame HIM in the first place.

Geoffrey Owens of “The Cosby Show”: “No one should feel sorry for me, either from a positive or a negative perspective. I’ve had a great life, I’ve had a great career, and I’ve had a career that most actors would die for.” https://t.co/voHKeBBk6p

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 4, 2018

Here’s what he had to say:

Actor Geoffrey Owens, who once played Bill Cosby’s son-in-law Elvin on “The Cosby Show,” says he is proud to work at Trader Joe’s and is unfazed by what he feels is job-shaming.

“It’s really overwhelming in a good way,” Owens shared with Roberts. “I really want to thank everybody out there: family, friends, Hollywood community and the general public for the incredible support, the amazing support and positivity that they’ve shown for me. It’s quite astounding, it’s very encouraging.”

It is. It’s awesome realizing that most Americans will stand by a hard-working, honest man, rather than shaming him for no longer living a Hollywood lifestyle.

Owens said he felt the reports about his workplace were in fact attempts at job-shaming.

“I was really devastated, but the period of devastation was so short, because so shortly after that, the responses – my wife and I started to read these responses from literally all over the world of support and so, fortunately, the shame part didn’t last very long,” he said.

LOVE this. I’ll celebrate this man, and the fine people who came out to support him, WAY before I’ll celebrate a typical self-important Hollywood actor.

He’s a hard-working American… there is NOTHING shameful about that.

“This business of my being this ‘Cosby’ guy who got shamed for working at Trader Joe’s, that’s going to pass. … But I hope what doesn’t pass is this idea … this rethinking about what it means to work, the honor of the working person and the dignity of work,” he said. “And, I hope that this period that we’re in now, where we have a heightened sensitivity about that and a re-evaluation of what it means to work, and a re-evaluation of the idea that some jobs are better than others, because that’s actually not true.

“There is no job that’s better than another job,” he continued. “It might pay better, it might have better benefits, it might look better on a resume and on paper, but actually it’s not better. Every job is worthwhile and valuable, and if we have a kind of a rethinking about that because of what’s happened to me, that would be great. But no one should feel sorry for me, either from a positive or a negative perspective. I’ve had a great life, I’ve had a great career, and I’ve had a career that most actors would die for.”

Mike Rowe had something to say about it… and it was PERFECTION:

“Dear Geoff Owens

Mike Rowe here, Dirty Jobs, etc. Saw the drama over the weekend. Read the articles. Watched the interviews. Fascinating. https://bit.ly/2CfiLvI

Not sure if you know anything about my foundation, but I run a work ethic scholarship program called mikeroweWORKS. Among other things, we train people for skilled jobs that don’t require a four-year degree. We also try to promote things like personal responsibility, delayed gratification, work ethic, and a positive attitude. Toward that end, we require all scholarship applicants to sign a S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, (Skill and Work Ethic Aren’t Taboo.) It’s a twelve-point pledge that embodies what I believe are qualities that all people of character possess. It seems to me that you more than qualify. https://bit.ly/2wHTu8k

Over the years, we’ve sold thousands of these things, mostly as a fundraiser for the scholarship fund, but also, as public reminder that work is never the enemy. Want one? I think it would look great in the break room at Trader Joe’s. Or maybe the entrance? Or wherever you’d like to hang it. They’re normally $12, but all thing considered, I’m happy to send you one, compliments of mikeroweWORKS.

Thanks for what you’ve done, and for what you’re doing. And good luck with whatever comes next.

Mike Rowe”

YES!!!

I love Mike Rowe. Seriously… I feel like so many of us have SO MUCH to learn from his acceptance and clear, kind heart.