As I'm preparing for both a thesis and graduate exams this month I will have to make this short. I can't help it, some things just make rant.
I noticed this trend before, when Michael Jackson died...also when Amy Winehouse died, and now Whitney Houston... Facebook posts by very angry people. Why are they angry? Not because another life is lost, but because - how dare famous people go and die, and how dare we
know about it when so many people gave their lives in the war?!
Yeah, you read me correctly and no, I haven't had any of the 'Quil today. Before you point and spit and call me "un-American" (don't even get me started on that phrase)... I agree that celebrities get way too much attention, money, and perks, and I also agree that it's kind of weird for the nation to go on melt-down when one of them dies. I also agree that we should pay respect to the people who have served our country at war, and we should pay homage to fallen soldiers. I agree, they deserve our respect, and they definitely deserve more respect than, say, a coke-addled rockstar/movie star/pro ball player who's done nothing for our country short of making films about farting or violating a pie... but I really don't understand the argument here. Death is death is death, and everybody has the right to grieve a death - whether it's the death of a hero or a drug addict. My mother was addicted to cigarettes, she died of lung cancer. Are you going to get angry with me for grieving her death? Do I have less of a right to feel sorrow for her passing because vice (which all human beings are subject to) killed her rather than heroism? And who says that we've forgotten our veterans and those who died at war? I think most Americans have been touched by the events following September 11th. Those in my generation went to school with at least one person (more likely several people) who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. So many of us who haven't served have loved ones who have. I just don't see how tabloid shows obsessing over Amy Winehouse or Whitney Houston have anything to do with that. I don't see how this is an "either/or" situation as people like to show it. I think whining about attention being paid to other dead people is kind of petty and selfish, to be honest...quite the opposite to giving your life so that people here could have rights like freedom of speech...
Just a final thought - These celebrities also make more money and enjoy all these perks while nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others who serve the country barely scrape by every day. If you want to whine about celebrity news trumping news about the war, then why don't you stop going to movies, paying for cable, netflix, itunes, internet, season tickets? Stop stuffing these coke-heads' pockets with your dear entertainment money, save it, and donate it to the V.A. - which actually needs the money. Oh yeah, that's right, you were only "saying." (Your heroes are still out there "doing.")
