And so it goes...

Often I look at the newspaper and I am outraged by the headline, though rarely in the way the headline is designed to outrage me. In fact it is precisely that, the fact that the headline is designed in a way that illicit this response, which enrages me. The problem is that these things are often used for things that are for all intents and purposes none of my business. It's tabloid news, it's gossip about Jon and Kate type information, interpersonal relationship data. It's manufactured unrest. I bring this up because of the car wreck woman, and how the media has suddenly turned on her because of the ridiculous amount of drugs and alcohol found in her system. She has suddenly become a pariah. Now I’m not defending her behavior, I honestly don't care; she has no influence on my life or my sphere of recognition. I'm sad that her, and the kids died but in the same way I’m sad that my 5th goldfish died, in other words I get over it quickly. The point is the media shouldn't have been covering it in the first place. The wake was no more solemn an event because there were 50 local news crews covering it. Death is a private matter and grieving for loved lost ones should be as private as the griever chooses it to be.
These types of stories give us something to talk about around the water cooler “what a shame.” Or “how could she with the kids in the car.” But we don’t really care. We could just as easily talk about the weather with the same level of personal commitment to the conversation. I don’t like these stories because it pours gasoline on a fire raging in someone’s personal life. Imagine if you will getting divorced or getting fired from your job, a personal tragedy, every day you have to get up and deal with it, cope with the dramatic changes your life has taken, now imagine that when you come home every news channel and news paper is talking about you being fired, better yet imagine they’re waiting outside of your house asking you questions. It’s worse then a fire, it shocks the mind and the body like a bomb going off on your front lawn or a brick coming through your dinning room window during family dinner. There is no coping, grieving, or coming to terms it is just a prolonged series of shocks keeping you awake at night. For what?
Some will say well what about the other families, the innocent families, they deserve answers. Yes they do, we don't! We have nothing to do with them, we don't even know their names yet we lust after the information because it's soap opera. This is a dog bites man story, in other words there isn't anything else there, there isn't a government or corporate oligarch whose indifference or malevolence caused this tragedy to take place, this isn't endemic of the plight of the suburban family, it's just death. Death is a part of our every day existence there is no larger prism to view this story in. This makes it a private matter. The families involved will need an investigation they will need answers so that they can come to terms with their loss but our part in this matter has long since expired we can bear witness but our outrage is hollow because when we turn the page we shake our head and say tsk, tsk, tsk, but we are already thinking about who won the mega millions.