VanSchoelandt
Walking around in Wal-Mart the other day, I noticed dozens of magazines still mourning Michael Jackson’s death and flashing rumors about celebrity relationships. It seems I cannot pass through a grocery line or flip through the channels on my T.V. without hearing the latest celebrity gossip.
More and more it seems our society is concerned with celebrities’ private lives than what truly matters. Almost every magazine cover or pop culture television station is spattered with the intimate details of Hugh Heffner’s divorce or the uncertain future of Michael Jackson’s children.
Why it is so many Americans care more about the status of a strangers’ marriage rather than important issues that, in reality, have a bigger impact on them? The fact that our country is in the deepest recession since the Great Depression or that we are oil hogs and are using up our planet’s natural resources at an ever-increasing rate is pushed to the back burner if a movie starlet is found with drugs in her car, famous sisters are feuding, or a late-night talk show host passes away.
Although it is not unnatural for our country to mourn the loss of a familiar face or great entertainer, it is almost as though the nation forgets how to function with the loss of one person. The fact that the national debt is almost $11.8 trillion or the U.S. troop death toll in Iraq is over 4,000 almost goes unnoticed.
What about the soldiers overseas? Sure, a fatality may be mentioned on the evening news, or multiple deaths may even warrant brief national coverage, but are there day-long memorials for these individuals who are keeping this country safe and free? Do any of these soldiers get featured on the cover of multiple magazines? It is almost an insult to them when a news anchor offhandedly reads off the current death toll from a teleprompter only to quickly move on to the headlining story where some movie star’s child is having a birthday.
What is even more amazing is how short our attention spans are. Once some new drama pops up on the internet our attention is snatched away from one finite rumor to the next, while the whole time our economy is still suffering, and international pandemics are still affecting people worldwide.
Rumors from TMZ that Michael Jackson’s children were all born of surrogate mothers and donated sperm seem to be much more interesting to hear than the fact that 3,205 people globally have lost their lives to the Swine Flu so far.
It seems that not only are Americans addicted to oil, they are also addicted to gossip. Although there is nothing wrong with being interested in celebrities, our nation needs to stop revolving their lives around people they do not even really know, and start focusing on how to fix the issues that continue to plague our country.
-Brianna VanSchoelandt/The Bulletin.
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