Gone but Never Forgotten

The past five years have been ones of loss. It seems as if all the greats are dropping one by one, but this post is not to comment on their loss, but more the public’s reaction to their loss. This past week we have lost Whitney Houston, a devastating blow to the R&B genre. With 475 awards she has won more accolades for her voice than any other artist. She has gone on free tours for the troops so that for just an hour they could forget about the fighting and death. She has sold over 175 million albums, and overcame many hardships in her life, including drugs and domestic abuse. She was on her way back to the limelight when she passed away.

Despite the accomplishments that she has made in her life people still only focus on the negative. They only see that she used to be a crack addict, they don’t see that she overcame her addiction, or raised a beautiful daughter. They only see the bad and none of the good. Why is it that in times when we are supposed to come together, do we stand apart the most? When her death was announced many people put up facebook statuses saying RIP or “gone but not forgotten”. These are the people who want their grief acknowledge, or want to show that they have respect for the lost person. Then you have the facebook statuses saying about how they don’t care, or how they are sick of people posting about the subject. Just tonight I read a status about how someone thinks it’s disgusting that Jersey is putting their flags at half mast for her, how they don’t think she deserves it because she was just a “crack head” and how the troops die all the time and nobody cares. I thought this statement was very uninformed. Whitney Houston did plenty for America; even if it was just helping people get through their day with her music. Everyone that dies for their country be it a police officer or a soldier is given their due and are honored accordingly. We even have whole national holidays for them! It is the people who help their countries in less obvious ways that get ignored, and I believe that they should be remembered as well; like Whitney Houston.

So for all those unsung heroes out there, even if the only thing they ever did was put a smile on someone else’s face, remember: You May Be Gone, But You Will Never Be Forgotten.