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Lemmings on Parade: Flaming Crap Weasels |
Posted by
feralucce on Wednesday, August 01, 2001 - 12:01 PM PST
This is the first submission of my column. A smattering of rants and raves and general bitching about the state of the world. There are not many things I am intolerant of… but I cannot abide stupidity. And it is the stupidity of the world I intend to expose…
The weather has been hell. Robin Williams summed it up best when he said, "It's hot! Damn Hot! Hot and wet! Which is fine when you are with a woman, but sucks when you in the jungle!" It is odd, being from New Orleans, people expect me to love the heat and humidity. But I don't. I hate it. I spend my day figuring how to spend the greatest part of my time in the ac.
The heat has been killing people. A little boy, wandered out to the car, opened the door, closed himself in. He died from the heat. A foot ball player for the Vikings, got sick from the heat on Monday. Tuesday, he goes back out, gets sick on the field, and keeps going. He died. These two made national headlines. The papers and newscasters all talked about what a tragedy it was that these people died.
This morning CNN covered the football player story for 15 minutes. 15 minutes. I'll say it again, because it bears repeating… 15 minutes. The country is roasting, people are dying from the heat because they cannot afford to have air conditioning. I mean there are old people on London Broil that cannot even afford a goddamn fan. At the end of that report, the newscaster mentioned that 15 others have died from the heat. 15 others. Once more, I will say it again, because it bears repeating. 15 others have died from the heat.
Now, we have that clear, 15 others die from the heat and all they get is a tagline on the ass end of a special report. These two lemmings throw themselves off the cliff and get a special report. Did I miss something? Someone got mad at me for saying the little boy was a victim of Darwinism. He got into the car, he could have gotten out… Survival of the fittest… or the smartest, seems apt. The child may not have realized, and that is fine. But tell me… what excuse did the football player have?
I guess what I am really asking here is this… Why is it that two people who die from their own stupidity are a tragedy, but the 15 others, who had no place to go, and no way to get out of the heat are just a foot note? Feel free to respond… we might get to the bottom of this…
Feral
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Flaming Crap Weasels | Login/Create an account | 8 Comments |
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Re: Flaming Crap Weasels
by callei (plyn@plynlymon.com)
on Aug 01, 2001 - 08:02 PM
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So the hero gets the news, but the old people, the sick and infirm, can die without notice.
I wonder if the real quesion isnt why do we pretend to care that any of them died.
I mean that we are not a very giving culture (only the strong survive, survival of the fittest, top dog, etc) so why does the media pretend to care that people die in the first place. Why are they trying to make us care?
Is it only to sell the products that are in the commercials after/during the "story"?
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Re: Flaming Crap Weasels
by Paul on Aug 01, 2001 - 10:48 PM
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This may not be an appropriate comment, but I don't believe that I would call either the boy or the football player stupid for their deaths. I haven't read about either story anywhere but in your post, so I can only respond with speculation on their deaths.
In the case of the football player, there were many reasons for him to do what he did. I have known a lot of people that are in the athlete/entertainer industry, and the one overwhelming thing about being their is that you are always looking over your shoulder to see if there is someone newer, stronger and/or better than you ready to take your place. We, as a people expect to be entertained by tremendous amounts of athleticism by our heroes, and will accept nothing less. It is possible that the athlete was showboating or believed himself to be invincibe, but it is just as likely that he was afraid that if he didn't get out there as soon as possible and get back to practice, honing and perfecting his game, that he would spend most of the season on the bench.
Who knows why the boy was in the car? It would be easy to blame his death on the apparent abcense of the parents, but I can remember ack to my childhood, and I did some incredibly stupid things when my parents weren't around as well. The only difference was, in this case, his mistake proved to be fatal.
You are right, it is a tragedy that all of the elderly and the poor in the city have died from the heat, too poor to buy even a fan to help against it. But, at the same time, I wonder if this is something that we can blame on the media. I have heard about such people, and have just shook my head and said, "it's a shame that the world has to be that way." But at the same time, I really have never given any thought to what can be done to help the situation, to what I could do to help out. I wonder what other people reading this have done or even thought about situations like this one. I could definitely afford to buy a fan, and give it to one of those families, as could most people. It may not mean much in the total scheme of things, but it may be a start.
But all digressions aside, I don't believe that this is a situation in which to point fingers at someone. I think the reason that the boy and the athlete hit the news when the other families didn't is simply because we don't want to hear the stories closer to home. We want to feel sorry for the tragedies that are a little more distant. That is, in my opinion, a reason to hate ourselves far more than any media group.
In any case, your post gave me a lot to think about, and I appreciate that. I look forward to reading your next one.
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