RIP Amy Winehouse

I appreciated this quote from the piece Double Down linked:

"There are plenty of celebrities whose poor decision-making activates our sense of disdain and superiority, but Winehouse was not one of them; she radiated too much real sadness and heaviness, like someone who long ago ceased to even bother crying."

I think this is a fair appraisal of her. If, say, Lindsay Lohan had overdosed this past weekend, I think the jokes would have been rampant. In the case of Winehouse, those same jokes have been somewhat muted. I think Ahebe (the writer) touched on exactly why the derision just doesn't feel right. At least to me.

 

Couldn't disagree more, but I'm not sure how to explain it without seeming like I'm "reveling" in her death or whatever other awkward charges have been thrown about on this thread.

 

I get it. I think a lot of it (not saying this is true in your case, IJAG) ultimately depends on how much one "liked" Amy Winehouse or whatever. I "liked" her and her music, so I'm probably more apt to defend her and look past some pretty wretched stuff that she did. I think she was talented, so I'm more prone to thinking of her as a tortured-genius person. Was she? I don't know. The only thing I know for sure is that I can't stand the "I would never be dumb enough to do drugs" stuff on this thread. Having known really, really smart, wonderful people who have grappled with addiction for a variety of reasons, that particular sentiment pisses me off. The rest of the stuff on this thread I can understand to an extent. Life experiences, personal dealings, etc...

 

Yeah, I will buy that. I don't really need to hear anybody tell me they'd never be dumb enough to do drugs. In fact, that doesn't have a damn thing to do with the debate.

 

Could you PLEASE learn to disagree with someone without resorting to name-calling?

 

My cousin is a drug addict.

He is bipolar and schizophrenic and turned to drugs as a last resort to bring comfort to the nonstop demons of his mental illness.

If he died, I would be sad. And I wouldn't throw my arms up in the air and say "welp, he had it coming."

 

A few people have posted that even trying drugs for the first time is the moral failing. Thus, even if addiction is a disease, they have no sympathy. Because they would never do such a thing to start with. They would never be "stupid enough."

So anyone who has done, say, "a little blow" is "stupid"? And you would have no sympathy regarding anything that happened afterward, disease or no disease?

What if it was the President of the United States?

 

I said he made a stupid point. I did not say he is stupid. I didn't think I had to explain the difference.

 

Doing drugs is stupid. Sorry that bothers you so much, but it is true. It is not an intelligent act. Some people may have excuses why they started, but they still did a dumb thing.

 

What bothers me - and maybe this is a little Holden Caulfield of me - is the absolute lack of compassion for anyone who makes a mistake. I don't know if we're becoming more judgmental as a society. I don't know if we're becoming less forgiving. But, damn does it feel like it.

I've never done drugs. Once upon a time, however, I made a mistake in, I suppose, the same family. A big one. For that, on here, I have (indirectly) been called irredeemable, a "scumbag," and an "unemployable pariah." And I full realize that that point of view isn't confined to here. I spend hours every day - hours - contemplating whether I can possibly be a good person. Trying to reconcile. I don't know if I'll ever fully be able to.

No one gets a mulligan any more. No one can live anything down. Throw a brick at the Vancouver riots? You're marked for life if anyone had a camera phone. Make a stupid comment on a social networking site? That's your legacy. In stone.

A woman died here. A talented, 27-year-old woman. And a lot of people seem to think she deserved it. That breaks my heart a little bit. Not because of Amy Winehouse, necessarily. But because it serves to continue to confirm my must unsettling suspicion of humanity in 2011, that as connected as we are these days, empathy and compassion are things of the past. I don't know when the last time I even heard someone say, "Well, everyone makes mistakes." Margin for error, room to grow - those just aren't things we recognize any longer. Every day is a mine field, and the mines are our fellow human beings, coiled to pounce.

 

anyone who has inferred that amy 'deserved' to die is an a--hole. have some folks really said that? or is it what you read into posts that assert their sympathies are reserved for others?

anyone who has said amy 'deserved' to die or 'had it coming' is at least as 'stupid' as they accuse addicts to be. however, i don't think that peopl e holding back on the sympathy they have or declaring it a tragedy is nothing new. there are just more -- and more immediate -- ways for every tom, dick and sally to make their feelings public.

anyhoo... i'd sure like to know if amy's funeral was a private, by-invitation-only affair. 'cause if was open to the public, and you believe the adage that you can measure a person by th e turnout for their funeral, amy would seem to have soured an awful lot of people -- only about 100 folks turned out for the final farewell:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/sleep_tight_angel_ZVZqWl3qQi2UnDzfAyK9XJ

this had to be a private ceremony, no? otherwise the turnout woulda been a lot more substantial, just in terms of grieving fans who didn't 'know' her but who wanted to show their appreciation for her music. yeah. as i type it becomes more and more obvious this had to be the case...

 

shockey, I'm not just referring to SportsJournalists.com, but society at large. Maybe it's the nature of the Internet.