Paul Walker…and Celebrity Deaths.

Paul Walker died. It wasn't an overdose, it wasn't a crime, it wasn’t cancer, it wasn’t suicide, it wasn’t  AIDS... it was an accident. 

My first memory of Paul Walker was going to the movies and watching Meet the Deedles.  I can’t tell you who I went to the movie with or the whole premise of the movie, but I can tell  you Paul Walker played a stereotypical surfer dude... and he looked sooooo hot doing  so. I can also tell I remember thinking the movie was horrible, but still, Paul Walker was hot.

I then remember She’s All That, he was an asshole jock, but still hot. I shockingly, didn’t remember he was in Varsity Blues, because to be honest, I don’t ever remember watching that movie in it’s entirety, maybe I did-- once. 

I get it. Everyone has a right to speak what they want. Just like Maryland has  their crabcakes and football, and that’s what they’re about, free speech is what all of America is about.  Free speech was a very cool thing, but lately it seems to be just as cool as it was that you had the right to bare arms before the right to bare street sweepers and AR-15s  came into the picture. 

Once the internet exploded, I loved it. I still do. I love social media*, it has breaking news, humor, poignant thoughts, heartfelt and heartbreaking anecdotes. You get views from every part of the spectrum, and once again that is what America is about...

*(I do have a love/hate with the subject of anonymity on the web, though, but that's for another post)

... and with that I lay the point down that, sometimes, I don’t get it... 

Personally for me, there is something about celebrity deaths, especially young ones who die way before their time. As shallow as it sounds, to me, celebrities are larger than life. Sometimes in my head I picture myself seeing Justin Timberlake or Jennifer Aniston in a Ralph’s... or a ShopRite for you east coast peeps, and just think of how unreal it would be. Some celebrities just seem like a fable to me. 

So for someone you couldn’t imagine ever seeing in real life, let alone thinking would ever die, to suddenly and tragically die is a hit in my gut.

I’m obsessed with the internet. I’m on Twitter constantly  because of you know, FOMO... and Facebook as well. Although Facebook has taken a backseat because, lets be real, out of the hundreds and hundreds of friends I have, I only care to see about a remote few and how their babies and wives/husbands are doing. 

Since Saturday night though, I’ve been consumed by a hatred for social media. 

I’ve been perplexed by some people and their reactions towards Paul’s death. Granted, everyone has a right to feel how they want and say what they want about any given thing, but at the same time, some people are fucking assholes.

I’m not one to throw an “RIP”  or a” praying for the families” up online for people who have passed away celebrity or personal (Selena and Cory Monteith exempted from that, because those have hit me hard)  I actually dislike the RIP acronym, and by no means am I trying to insult those that it means something to, but it just seems impersonal to me.

The problem I’m having with people mentioning  Paul Walker’s death is the negativity. When Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys died, I didn’t see any negativity. I did see witty jokes that were still super respectful to him. When Cory Monteith died... of an overdose I don’t remember seeing any jokes about it. I’ll give it to you that I was in a legitimate, even surprising to me, depression after his death so maybe I had a little bit of tunnel vision. But with Paul Walker’s I didn’t have tunnel vision and I’ve seen all sides. 

I wasn’t his number one fan, but I was never not, not a fan, I watched a couple of The Fast and the Furious movies when they came out and enjoyed them, I have the movie Into  the Blue on DVD, every time I watch  Not Another Teen Movie,  I think about him when Eric Christen Olsen is on screen, but he certainly wasn’t an actor that was on my daily or even monthly radar. 

I guess why the whole point of  why I’m writing this is because-- I’m confused. I’m confused about the people making disgusting jokes about his death. I’m confused about why people are asking why others are upset about his death even though “he wasn’t a good actor.” 

 Why are assholes basing the sadness on someone’s death based on their “acting ability” or the fact that someone was “just an actor”, or that “you don’t know him”? 

I do get that there are people out there that do just throw their “condolences” for famous people or even random people they don’t know just to be “in” and “trendy” with the pop culture news at the time. But hey, at the same time there are people that are huge fans, and other people that may not be fans that just have... something... what is it? What’s that word? Ahh, it’s on the tip of my tongue ...WHAT IS IT? Oh yeah... EMPATHY. Whether or not you think Paul was a good or bad actor, he was a movie star, a humanitarian,  a friend, a son, a brother and a FATHER... it’s  fucking sad. And its fucking sad that people degrade that because of his “profession.”

I get that people aren’t passionate about film and TV... but some of us are, and we grow up and watch these people, they are in our homes day in and year out and we feel like we know them to some weird extent, so of course we are going to be sad, bummed and grieving. 

I’m not super passionate about things like race car driving or football . But  I was somehow able to feel empathy when Dale Earnhardt died in that crash or when the many football players that die via murder, suicide, or car crash while DUI (was that harsh for those who like football? See?) 

Death is death. A celebrity death, a friend, a family member, a solider protecting my rights, life and America ... they are all someone to someone, they are not just their profession...it’s all sad . Respect it.