the papers:
Outside the Manhattan building on an upscale street, paparazzi and gawkers gathered, and several police officers put up barricades to control the crowd of about 300. Onlookers craned their necks as officers brought out a black bodybag on a gurney, took it across the sidewalk and put it into a medical examiner's office van.
As the door opened, bystanders snapped pictures with camera phones, rolled video and said, "He's coming out!" (AP)
What is this? Who are we, and how dare any of us lay claim to be living in a civilized world? It has all gone so far past decency for me, that I can't imagine our society ever finding it's way back to common decency. I'm a fool to ever think anything else about this place. If there had been camera phones when M. Monroe died, the same situation would have unfolded. Years after I am gone, the same ugliness will happen. I never had humanity on a pedestal, but I certainly thought we were much better than yelling barbarians with cell phones taking pictures of a young father being taken out in a bodybag.
Something has gone terribly wrong with Evolution - in fact, for those like Presidential hopeful Huckabee, things are even more disturbing if you can call this Creationism. It matters not one bit how you look at how we got here: what matters is that there is something terribly, awfully wrong with how we have turned out.- The Insomniac, still not sleeping
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Heath Ledger, Societal NadirComments
Not everyone believes in god, sal. you are entitled to your beliefs, but respect others' right to believe what they wish as well.
you're absolutely right. i should've just agreed by saying nothing.
Based on your blog's content, it sounds like you're more disturbed by people taking pictures with their cell phones than the cause of death, which, whether intentional or not on the deceased's part, was a lethal abuse of drugs - a fact I personally find more disturbing than how people reacted.
You conclude, based on the events you read about from the Associated Press and how you imagine people would react if they had cell phones when Marilyn Monroe died, that "society" is beyond "common decency", which I can't help but feel is melodramatic and, because I am a member of the "society" you are condemning, insulting. You are the judge of society? And you damn it for how they use cell phones? And is this blog entry a testament of respect to Heath Ledger? Because it sounds to me like you are USING his death as a chance to express your own, personal grievances with the state of humanity. How is that more respectful of the deceased?
Incidentally, if it's "COMMON decency", then it is DETERMINED by society, as opposed to YOUR concept of what is appropriate behavior, which isn't common, necessarily - it's just you.
I don't think you're a bad person for writing this, but I do resent your broad generalizations and your cynical outlook. Your mentality is perhaps not the sort that IMPROVES society.
I'll admit, I resent people who react dramatically to celebrity deaths (excluding close friends and family, of course). Do you know how many people died the same day as Heath Ledger? And I'm talking about deaths that did not occur in expensive New York apartments. The homeless, war victims, the starving, etcetera, etcetera. But here is one more blog (amongst countless) giving voice to the tragedy that is this actor's death.
I'm not saying it's not sad. Of course it is. But perspective is important.
It's one thing if you want to project your own feelings on an actor and get upset over their death. Lord knows, you're not alone. But I take issue when you decide that "there is something terribly, awfully wrong with how we have turned out," because frankly - and despite how you may feel about me after you've read this - I am a nice, simple person living a nice, simple life.
"things are even more disturbing if you can call this Creationism" here's the part where we blame God for all the evil in the world right? give me a break, we all have a choice. and it DOES matter where we came from..if evolution is true by some astronomical chance (and i mean ASTRONOMICAL), then we have NO hope for things to get better. But since there is a Creator who gave life then you better believe that same God will punish evil sooner than later. Nevertheless, you're absolutely right about these barbarians.