Thoughts with my Mad River

I'm sitting at ABBEY enjoying a Randall-ized Mad River Steelhead IPA infused with Amarillo hops contemplating a few things.  After a great meeting in Tampa, I figured I'd treat myself to a beer or two and live out the day with a smile when a buddy from high school posted this on Facebook:

 Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee: "Amy Winehouse died. That's a lifestyle choice. The 87 who were murdered in Oslo Norway. That's [effing] tragic."


Got me to thinking.  How is it that we can make such a huge deal out of the Casey Anthony Trial to the extent to where they track how much the trial is COSTING the taxpayers who can't seem to be happier with the need for this cost?  How is it that we have an exhausting number of people pasting songs from Amy Winehouse on Facebook and waxing about what a tragedy it is to lose this "genius?"  How is it that the (reported) 93 dead by disgraceful acts of violence, including the brutal shooting of children while dressed as a police officer is not as socially networked as Casey or Amy?


I'm not criticizing or judging.  I'm just pondering the possibilities.  A few of them that I can think of:


1.  The shootings and bombing were overseas and does not hit close enough to home?  It could stand to reason, as 911 and the D.C. Shooters were nationally covered to a great extent, and most Americans probably can't find Norway on a map.


2.  It is easy to emotionally care about a musician?  They speak to us through their songs and we feel emotionally connected to them as if they are "singing to us."  Just look at how the legend of Jimi Hendrix grows where the greatness of Jimmy Page is still a secret to those outside of rock music.  Look at Stevie Ray Vaughn's record sales AFTER his death.  Who's the greatest Beatle of them all?


3.  News is depressing?  All we see is death and destruction on the news.  Amy Winehouse was a person with a name and videos that we can post without much effort?  The children in Norway are a number - easy to put in a box in our minds and forget tomorrow?     


4.  The killer was politically motivated?  As Katt Williams put it "I don't know no insurgents, you can kill of them."  if we stay out of politics, maybe we cannot become victims?  An irrational thought, of course, but easy to swallow and justify.


5.  We are victims of the press?  Do we care only about what the press gives us most of?  As my mother puts it, "that may be putting the cart before the horse," but perhaps that's the case.  Why did we care so much about Laci Peterson, John Bobbit, and Jenbenet Ramsay?  These deaths are no more tragic to the objective eye as any other.  To their families they are devastating, but anyone who does not know these people should not care any more about them than the homeless guy who got shot in the town that we live in.  We laugh our asses off at Antoine Dodson, whose sister was almost raped in her own house; yet we hold vigils and make pilgrimages to see the grave of Kurt Cobaine, who killed himself while high.    


6.  We want to avoid the subject since the accused in the shooting was a blonde-haired, white Christian who killed for his political and religious views?  As it stands, he IS a reflection of most us of in America.  If he DID turn out to be a Muslim (which was earlier reported by Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post) would we want to invade someone over it?  


I'm not sure exactly how to feel about the difference we make between these pieces of news.  Maybe hatred is more appealing, so we like to see evil in the face of Casey Anthony and O.J.  Maybe we don't have the same level of empathy for those abroad.  Maybe we just have too much news right now and only so much room in our days to give.  Maybe we were looking for an escape from financial gloom and doom when Casey came across our radar.  


Who knows.  Actually, I'd like to see some (constructive) comments on what anyone out there thinks.