Who cares? Another overpaid, drug addicted, spoiled, overly eccentric (bordering on insane), Hollywood pedophile has died. Like I said, who cares? What disturbs me is the amount of media coverage his death is getting. Just like Lady Dianna, a woman who didn’t do much more than go to parties and get photographed on beaches, America now values the lives of celebrities way more than true American heroes, like John McCain, Teddy Roosevelt, or General David Petraeus. But those true heroes or “Oh so boring,” right? Who needs them when we watch train wrecks like Michael Jackson or Britney Spears acting like perverted mental patients? It is a shame that someone like Petraeus doesn’t get a fraction of the coverage Jackson ever got, yet Petraeus is responsible for only “minor” things like single-handedly turning around a losing war in Iraq. One day Petraeus will be as large a figure in American history as U.S. Grant or Eisenhower, yet you don’t hear much about the guy today unless he’s testifying before a Senate Committee in Washington, and even then you’ll probably only see a brief film clip about it on the news. But, hey, when Michael Jackson was on trial for raping a kid or Britney Spears goes out without her underwear, it’s headline news. This is a really sad state of affairs for America and the rest of the world. About 100 years ago, actors and actresses were considered no better than vagrants, and rightfully so. In those days generals, admirals, inventors, explorers, some politicians (like Teddy Roosevelt), and barons of industry were held up as role models for Americans to look up to. Were they all saints? Of course not, but they accomplished a hell of a lot more than a Michael Jackson or a Paris Hilton, celebrities who were simply famous for being famous, which is an outrage and a shame. No wonder so few good people want to enter public service and no wonder so few inventors (people on a par with Thomas Edison) get so little publicity. Achievements rarely sell newspapers and fill the air time on cable news channels. But acting weird, doing drugs, being a sexual deviant, and being an overly pampered, over paid celebrity that’s done nothing but sing a few songs, well now that’s a role model we should all admire, right? How pathetic.
