The death of Anna Nicole Smith has surely left us all with a gaping hole that will be hard to fill. After all, if you remember when she cured cancer the world was truly changed and her recent discovery that planetary warming could be ended by just having bloviating blowhards like Al Gore shut their mouths was nothing short of brilliant. We can hardly forget that moment when she walked across the Jordan River and brought peace to the Middle East and most recently the announcement that she calculated pi out to one million digits was priceless.
She didn’t do these things? Oh really? Sorry, a casual observer of American life would have assumed that she did based on the huge amount of coverage her death has received. Nonstop coverage in fact on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. Special reports and special reporters making even more special reports.
What exactly did Vickie Lynn Hogan, a/k/a Anna Nicole Smith do? So far as I can tell, she first came to the attention of some when she became the model for Guess jeans. I apologize but I really don’t recall that. Perhaps my pop culture quotient is a little off. She was at some point featured in Playboy magazine and, while I won’t tell you I only read the articles, I can tell you I don’t remember her from that. The first time I heard of her was when the story of her marriage to a billionaire sixty years her senior became the stuff of court cases. Her speech often seemed slurred and I wondered if she was on something. She seemed mostly to be a cartoon character, willing to debase and humiliate herself for the purpose of propping up her “fame.”
My heart goes out to her family and friends who will surely miss her. But I cringe at what she represented. She was the personification of the fame seekers. These are the folks who are on that quest to be famous at all costs. Fame for the sake of fame. Not writers who hope to become famous for their great achievements in literature or actors who hope to be recognized for their great work in film or on the stage. Not scientists who might become househould names when they discover cures for diseases or develop vaccines. Not statesmen who bring peace to troubled lands and then find their names recorded in the annals of history. No, the goal of these folks is not to accomplish anything, it is only to be famous. They don’t want to be known for their good works or good deeds, they just want to be known.
Again I extend my sympathies to this lady’s family but my heart aches for our current culture which allows a “news network” to run a scroll that says “the death of Anna Nicole - day 2″. Somewhere right now, Osama bin Laden is laughing at us. Perhaps we should pay attention to the stated goals of bin Laden and his collection of blood thirsty thugs. Or maybe we should just wait and see if Paris Hilton has been able to extend her fifteen minutes of fame.
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