WHEN YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE your life in a fishbowl, you shouldn’t be surprised to find people looking in, but lately the national obsession over issues being had by pseudo-celebrities is more and more out of control.
– I’m still trying to figure out how Lindsay Lohan got to be a big deal. When she was little she was in a Disney movie, and that’s all I knew of her until she started self-destructing right before the eyes of the world.
It’s a terrible thing when someone is plunged into drug addiction to the point that they lose everything, including their freedom; but it becomes an even bigger tragedy when a nation of people are hungering for more and more information that the privacy of treatment ceases to be an option.
Apparently the actress was released from jail at about 1:30 a.m. the other morning because of jail overcrowding (they could have transferred her here, we have room) and sent her straight to an in-patient drug rehabilitation facility.
Who gets released from jail at 1:30 in the morning?
Apparently celebrities do.
The middle of the night release was an attempt to move her from a criminal facility to a rehabilitation one; but even at that hour there were hoards of photographers and media types outside just waiting to get a photo of her.
Do we really care that this girl has turned herself into a train wreck? I care for her as a person, a human being, but I’m not sitting here hoping that she gets clean so she can make another movie.
This is her life, let her find a way to live it.
- I also see the Bristol Palin has broken up with her baby-daddy (hip, right?) Levi Johnston. Now, no matter how you feel about Sarah Palin, this girl and her boyfriend and their baby have been through way too much media and national scrutiny.
They’re teenage parents, not exactly news in our society today; but we have made them into pseudo celebrities; and we want to know every little detail about them.
They are young and have a child that they need to be responsible for, married or not, and that’s a tough job. I think they deserve the right to do that job in private.
– Anna Nicole Smith is dead. Let’s move on.
So is Michael Jackson.
– In sports, everyone has been talking about Terrell Owens coming to the Bengals. Apparently he is portrayed in the media as being somewhat selfish; and he believes that not to be true.
He’s so willing to prove everyone wrong, he lowered himself to accept $2 million to play in Cincinnati this year (with some incentives). Don’t forget as he tries to make ends meet on such a paltry salary, he also has endorsement deals and a television show to fall back on.
Just in case, I may place a coffee can at the Shell station with his picture on it. You can drop some spare change in there to help him out.
“Lowering himself” to accept $2 million a year? I should go so low.
I guess the point here is that we as a society hunger so much for information on these people that they can’t get sober or break an engagement or take a new job without an entire nation descending on them for every little detail.
Perhaps if we let these and others sort out their issues in private; we could move on to more important things, like how we educate our kids or how we protect our environment for future generations.
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School starts next Friday for kids (Friday the 13th – nice touch), and again it’s time to remind everyone that the school year brings issues.
Not only are kids walking down the sidewalks and across streets, possibly not paying attention; but next week will also bring a flood of new drivers, anxious to drive to school for the first time.
Beware of these people; because they will make a last second decision to pop in for a soda or will slow to holler at a friend; and it will happen right in front of you.
Also remember that buses will be traveling county and state roads; so your drive to work might take a bit longer than usual. Watch for those buses stopping to pick up kids; and watch for those kids running into the roadway to catch their bus.
I know it seems rather elementary; but caution may safe a life.
- Speaking of caution, apparently it’s a law now that you can’t text and drive at the same time.
Really? We needed a law for that?
The texting craze has even sparked a new term “Driving Distracted”. Have you seen the public service campaigns? “Don’t Drive Distracted”. With all of the features in vehicles, from MP3 players built in to video screens, I think it’s pretty much impossible not to drive distracted.
So here’s a tip from me to you, young people – you know that thing that you text on? Well, believe it or not, it’s a telephone too. That means you can dial a number and actually “talk” to another person. I know it sounds futuristic, but it’s possible.
You don’t have to type and read, you can talk and listen. Heck, with things like “Skype”, soon you’ll be watching your friends on your phone just like it’s a TV.
When that happens, none of us will have any privacy, anymore. We’ll all be pseudo celebrities; and we’ll have to take our trash out at 1:30 a.m. just to get some peace and quiet.
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I wrote a few weeks ago in this column about the venomous attacks that come from both sides of the political aisle against opposing candidates.
I truly believe that such attacks only serve to widen the political gap for all of us, and what we really need to know is what positive things a candidate is going to bring to office. We shouldn’t elect someone based on being scared of the other candidate.
But as we inch closer to November, things are getting more and more strange; so I thought I would take a moment to share an actual headline from an actual email. Please do not conclude that I lean one way or the other politically based on these emails.
As I see them come in during the coming weeks, I will share others with you.
Today’s entry comes from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and pertains to the Indiana Senate race between Republican Dan Coats and Democrat Brad Ellsworth.
Here’s the headline:
“New Government Report: Ellsworth’s Failed Stimulus Provides Monkeys With Cocaine While Failing To Create Much-Needed Jobs”
Really?
Brad Ellsworth is giving cocaine to monkeys? What kind of a man is this? Surely we shouldn’t elect a man who gives cocaine to monkeys, that’s Un-American. (Tongue firmly in cheek)
Seriously, the people sending this stuff out are making enough money that surely they can provide us voters with more pertinent information than monkeys and narcotics.
We deserve better than that.