Stop This Obscene Outpouring Of "Grief"
Yet another example of an outpouring of grief taken into absurdity with the inclusion of celebrities:
The squad laid flowers, a shirt and boots at the makeshift shrine to the youngster outside the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool.
Rhys, an Everton season ticket holder, was shot outside the pub on Wednesday…
Everton captain Phil Neville urged people to help the police catch the youngster’s killer.
“We are here today to pay our respects and appeal to anyone to come out and give information about the person who did this terrible thing…
Rhys was an 11-year-old lad and massive Evertonian. We just hope this thing never happens again.”(BBC)
Yes, it is tragic when someone - anyone - dies, but they do so every day. People, even 11-year-old boys, die every day and in every way.
The way that a few of these are picked up and exploited - by the media, politicians, and general public - can really be quite sickening. Why does Rhys deserve more than any other 11-year-old whose life is brutally cut short? Why does the search of Madeleine McCann get so much more media attention than many of the other missing children? The same question can be asked about all of the other media stories of this ilk - Damilola Taylor, Stephen Lawrence, et al. The answer is the same for all of them - nothing makes them more deserving. The only difference is that their deaths/disappearances got into the news.
This outpouring of, and wallowing in, grief just revolts me. Yes it is tragic. but where is the traditional British stiff upper lip? What happened to grieving in private and getting on with your life? Especially when you didn’t even know the deceased.
Source: BBC
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I think you know my theory on this: for the first time it is possible to reach your 50s without having been bereaved so people don’t know what to do any more. I doubt whether rhys’ parents should have been interviewed on TV given the state of shock they are in and I had my doubts about what happened at the football match. But if that helps them who are we to fault it? I agree that many killed, injured or missing children do not get into the news but maybe their plight does get highlighted via those who do. I think the S Lawrence case was a little different as it was his parents who were determined, despite their grief, to expoae what had really happened.
It’s the reaction to it by the media and the public that annoys me. It just goes too far. The prime example obviously being the death of Diana - an excessive outpouring of grief over a woman hardly any of them had ever met, let alone knew. It just goes too far in that direction every time anything like this hist the news.
Well said, yes people can put across their views on how bad that was but and as you said its a case of public whailing and sackcloth and ashes.
Agreed the days of the stiff upper lip were better days.