Estelle, excellent comment and thanks for expressing your opinion. Please do not take offensive with my retort. It is how I conduct myself when I write as a reporter or as a man with an opinion. I enjoy comments because it opens up the context of the discussion to other areas. The news I write is always based on research, but at times, I decide to put journalism to the side, and use opinion, based on my thoughts. I meant no disrespect toward Mr. Williams. He made me laugh when other comedians could not. Throughout my career, I was immersed with strangers; on assignment, overseas, my new friends and colleagues were strangers. My career was based on who my next colleague or friend would be and how well I could make the bond evolve, always for the assignment. My career revolved around people I had no knowledge of, but it was my job to get to know each person, and obtain information. It was my job to also protect people, strangers, if you will. Yes, it was a part of my job and the right thing to do. Strangers died, and without knowing their names, they became a part of my life as I prayed for them and their family. The airline victims may have died, not by hanging, not by taking too many pills, not because they wanted, too, but because it was their unfortunate demise. Mr. Williams was in our lives, but in a role of an actor, and not a person we knew in person. He was as real as the DVDs we viewed his movies on. The missing souls were not role-playing, and their lives were not a scene in a movie. They happened to be on a plane that could have been meant for any of us. Yes, they deserve to be mourned more than one actor, who consciously perished, and yes, they are strangers, but we mourn strangers every day of our lives, when another soldier or innocent families are killed during attacks in the Middle East. The missing souls are a mother, father, son, daughter, etc. to someone, and the right thing to do is to mourn not only for the missing, but also for the families. Realistically, we know Robin Williams as much as we know the missing, innocent passengers, but there are over 200 plus strangers who need us to continue to search for them. The innocent passengers, as I eluded in a previous message, did not have a choice to live or die; Mr. Williams had a choice. I lost good friends to suicide, most because the job was overwhelming. They were good people with severe depression, again because of the work. They had a choice to get help, not solely for themselves, but for the family and friends that loved them. They opted not to get help. Mr. Williams had the opportunity to get better. He, too, opted out. The airline victims never had a choice. Thanks again Estelle.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 05:35:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015