Whitney Houston’s death created uproar across the world. News anchors broadcasted respectful words of regret, TV specials were created in her honor and thousands of tweets expressed words of sorrow for a great talent lost.
The same can be said for the deaths of Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and every other recently deceased celebrity. However, alongside all of the mourning come those who protest it.
Without fail, there is always a Facebook status posted, which says something along the lines of, “Who cares about Whitney Houston? Let’s mourn the 200 soldiers that died overseas this week, instead.” I couldn’t agree more that those soldiers deserve acknowledgement.
However, they deserve just as much respect and honor after their passing as anyone else, famous or not. But that doesn’t mean all the hype about Whitney Houston is misplaced.
Celebrities have a way of bringing people together. People unite over music and entertainment, because everyone has a common interest.
A person from the West Coast can talk to a person from the East Coast, and chances are both will know the lyrics to Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
When a celebrity dies, we feel like we know them personally because they have affected our lives in so many ways. We see their personality when they make speeches at the Grammys, we know about their secrets from paparazzi magazines and we know what their greatest passion is.
Sometimes it feels like they know us because their music or movie has helped us through our own lives.
Almost everyone would agree the passing of a soldier, a young civilian or even a 100-year-old senior citizen is heartbreaking. It’s never a good thing to hear.
However, as much as we hate to admit it, their death doesn’t bother us as much as a celebrity’s who has impacted our lives directly.
I see nothing wrong with coming together to mourn the death of a celebrity that has affected everyone’s lives.
With everything that sets us apart from each other in this nation, it is important to have something to agree upon. We are all sad we’ll never hear our beloved Whitney sing live again.
All of the excess attention we give to celebrities does not belittle the death of anyone else.
I express my sadness about the death of my favorite pop singer, but this doesn’t mean I have any less respect or grief for the death of soldiers in Iraq.
It would be great if we could get the nation to react the same way about the death of someone other than a celebrity, but in reality, we can’t do that for each and every person that dies.
The most important thing is those who have passed are mourned and missed by their loved ones.
In the meantime, it’s ok to mourn someone as influential as Whitney Houston, as long as we acknowledge and respect the fact that other people who have died, even if they are not as well-known, are equally as important.
For more memories of Whitney Houston visit the Entertainment section and read: “Whitney Houston a retrospective.”
