Thoughtless? I do not think so. Both JF and I have thought about this celebrity death thing a lot. As I recall we got royally (its a joke) annoyed by the Princess Di cult weeping wagon. It is not that JF and I are unfeeling- but what gets built around some people is beyond realistic mourning and well beyond their place in history- and I think JF and I are discussing that aspect.
JFK jr may have been a fine man- I don't know, I didn't know him, and I don't know that much about him that makes me think he was any amazing historical figure- he had to take the bar three times, he had a famous father, he was good looking, he was a risk taker and he ran a not so hot magazine. So if people want to weep in public (YES I saw people weeping at a local arts festival over this) others of us have the right (and I would say the DUTY) to say "Now wait a minute, people die every day saving children from burning buildings, or trying to save someone from drowning, or are shot in the line of duty (policeman- not talking criminals here), or die in horrible ways none of us would want to contemplate but were very good people, maybe even brilliant people (remember the Doctor from the Killing Fields- killed by senseless violence in SF?- you probably don't, he didn't big media attention- he got a little teeny paragraph on the front page) and these people fall and vanish without a trace. There is a sense of gross inequality here for me.
So I think what you perceive as rudeness is JF's and my desire to see some sense of proportion be brought to these kinds of events. |
