Something Had To Give

"Unbearably tragic."

I used to be a fan of Anna Nicole Smith. Back in the early nineties, she was a "broad with hutzpah," who spoke her mind with courage and conviction. She went after what she wanted and I thought that inspiring.

Sadly though, her life has been wrought with tragedy. Caught up in the whirlwind addiction that is fame, her life was toxic.

She said she wanted to BE Marilyn Monroe. To an extent, poor girl, I believe she has been our generation's Marilyn. Probably NOT in the way Anna Nicole once hoped, but sorrowfully, she has followed in the icon's footsteps.

I was not alive when Marilyn was, but I can still draw parallels... not between the two blondes' lives, so much as they way the women were used.

The difference between Marilyn and Anna Nicole is purely technological.

In the sixties, we were in the Vietnam War, a war we were realizing was not only not winnable, but costing lives.

Marilyn was a distraction. In her death, we mourned the loss of an icon.

Now, we are in a war we cannot win, costing untold lives and causing untold suffering.

Anna Nicole was, is, a distraction. We are mourning the loss of a different kind.

In the sixties, we did not have 24 hour news channels, streaming video, reality television and instant downloads to publicize every second of a calamity... to drag out the toxic tragedy and bastardize it to a second, more horrifying, disconcerting expiration.

In the sixties, we had the daily paper and the nightly news. People shared their opinion over the back fence or the watercooler. There was a respectability, and respectfulness in journalism. Marilyn Monroe was allowed to die with dignity, despite the questionable circumstances surrounding her death.

I just hope that, in this, the information age, we don't let the distractions keep us from realizing the REAL reality. Our involvement in the Vietnam War lasted sixteen years. How long will the war in Iraq go on?