If I see one more of my facebook friends
writes how much s/he already misses Robin Williams, I’ll, I’ll, send her/him a
game request. Any game except Candy Crush of course, because that’s
fun. But I’ll send some weird, random game like Snail Bob…..all seven
versions. Truth be told, I have no idea what that game is. I just
searched facebook for the dumbest looking game, and voilà. But I just
feel so irritated right now.
Look, I feel badly for Robin Williams’
family and for his real friends. And I get it, many facebook users were
big fans of his. But I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend how people
can miss someone that they weren’t even thinking about a day before, or never
even met, much less had one conversation with. And I realize that the media
frenzy will be obsessed with him for a while; but for ordinary folks, someone
really needs to enlighten me.
And don’t get me wrong, I appreciated his
talent. He piqued my interest with The
World According to Garp. He tickled my funny bone in Moscow on the Hudson. And
by the time I saw Good
Morning, Vietnam, I concluded that he was a bonafide movie star worth the
accolade. Of course we all loved Mrs.
Doubtfire; and when he spooked me in One
Hour Photo, I realized the man was not only a comic, but he had some real
acting chops. But a friend he never was, and never would be!
I feel like the media tell us, or try to
tell us what we should be concerned about, on whom we should focus. The
media have a way of making us sympathize with one person over another, even
though they are met with the same fate. John Smith suffers from
depression. He suffers from low self-esteem. He doesn’t think he is
good enough. He doesn’t love himself. John Smith is your neighbor
and one day, his illness gets the better of him, and John Smith kills
himself. It bothers you for a second or two, but you move on with your
life because it doesn’t affect you. You never even said more than two
words to him. But for some reason, losing Robin Williams has you in a bad
way. You are in denial that somebody that funny, that congenial, that
great of an actor can be experiencing the same issues as John Smith. How
can Robin Williams be a mere mortal like John Smith?
And I get it. We see these people on
TV, and we feel like we know them. We see them as friends, as
family. I get it. But when will we start seeing our neighbors as
friends, our family as family? When will we exert the same amount of
energy for our fellow men that we do for celebrities? We shouldn’t wait
for a celebrity to put a face on an issue for it to be an issue worth following
or an issue worth showing some concern.
Then, the day after Robin Williams’ death,
as I tried to avert celebrity news, I ended up listening to some woman
appealing to President Obama to kindly assist the children stuck at the
US-Mexico border. I’m all for helping these unfortunate children, but I
could not believe my ears. This lady mentioned that these children were
being accosted by gang members to sell drugs. Where else have I heard
that happening to innocent children? Where else have children tried to
stay off the streets but are bullied into being drug dealers and
gangbangers? Where else are children shot and killed on the way to
school, on the way to visit Nana, on the way to the grocery store?
Some days, I honestly feel like I’m living
in an alternate universe. Everyone has to be so politically
correct. People can’t say what’s really on their minds anymore.
Stephen A. Smith cannot say that women should not provoke men into hitting them
or hitting them back before his statement is twisted to mean that he blames the
victims. People cannot say that America is biased towards Israel before
they are being accused of being Anti-Israel. No one can say that peace
will never come between the Israelis and Palestinians because they are fighting
over family land; but I will. I have never met a family feud over land
that was ever resolved. And hundreds of years of feuding will never
alleviate said problem. So, maybe stop pumping money into that dead
horse!
Then the other day, someone remarked about
Robin Williams’ untimely death, and I lost it. Can you please allow me to
give you some facts, well some facts from my perspective? No one dies
before his time. Any time someone dies, it’s time. Period!!!
So I do hope that Robin Williams rests in
peace, but what I hope for more is that we live in a world where we will be
just as sympathetic to John Smith as we are to Robin Williams, where Trayvon
Martin will not be more of a household name than Jordan Davis, where Hadiya
Pendleton’s demise will not be grieved more than Porshe Foster’s, because
perspectively speaking, each one of us is important to someone, and all life
should be treated equally.
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