The Stupidity of American Hero Worship
by Brian C. Noell
There are times when I am truly ashamed of many of my fellow Americans.
I work mainly out of my home office when I write. That is where I am the most comfortable and productive. My desk faces the picture window allowing me brief little breaks to gaze out and reflect on my thoughts. Usually when I do write, I always have a radio or television on, not because I am watching or listening but more for background noise than anything else. Usually they are on some news station, and I am half listening to them, but as a rule I am usually not very interested in their content, preferring instead to read the news, whether it be over the internet or in newsprint.
A lot of Americans died yesterday, most of whom have names I have never known, and whose names I will never know. They were fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts and some were children of other Americans. But in the course of my writing yesterday I couldn’t help but hear the news of the passing of two Americans in particular.
Every news network in America informed us yesterday of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, with many running a news crawl on the lower part of our television screens informing America of the latest updates on her death and the investigation that was to follow.
Smith, who was born Vicky Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas in November of 1967, is best known for being a former Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1993 and will be remembered most for her marriage to 89 year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall, thirteen months prior to his death in August of 1995. She subsequently battled Marshall’s heirs for her half of the billionaire’s estate, pursuing his fortune all the way to the Supreme Court. More recently, Smith gave birth to a baby girl in September of 2006, only to lose her grown son Daniel Smith later that same week while he was visiting her in the hospital. She also had her own reality television show known as “Anna Nicole Smith: Exposed”. Since her death yesterday, three men have come forward to claim paternity of her daughter, the first being Howard K. Stern, her attorney; photographer Larry Birkhead, and oddly enough Frederic von Anholt, 64, husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Many of you may think that I am heartless and cold, but who the hell cares about Anna Nicole Smith?
Anna Nicole Smith was nothing more than a two-bit, gold digging, “B” movie sex starlet whore, who got to the top because of her over-sized breast implants and her marriage to a man who was a billionaire and two steps away from death. It sickens me that the major television networks of this country or the world for that matter, as well as the newsprint people have devoted so much coverage to this shining example of American stupidity, and degradation. America should hang their head in shame for ever producing someone of this caliper, and for putting her on a pedestal for everyone to admire. Frankly the only media coverage that should be devoted to her should be the front page of the National Enquirer, and a ten-minute segment on Entertainment Tonight, right before they segway to an ad for penile dysfunction.
As I said earlier in this column, we as Americans lost a true hero yesterday. Nobody knows the name of Jennifer Parcell. Jennifer was a 20 year-old marine corporal whose life came to sudden and tragic end while defending her country in what the Defense Department has described as a “supporting combat operation” in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. I wish I could share more about her life, and I will share what I have found, but when I was doing research for this column earlier today I found over 6000 articles related to Anna Nicole Smith using the search engine Google. I found twelve for Parcell.
Jennifer Parcell, a Bel Air, Maryland native graduated from Fallston High School in 2004. In January of 2005 she followed her older brother Joseph into the Marine Corp. Joseph has been a Marine since 2003. For a month both Jennifer and Joseph were stationed together in Iraq until their tours of duty separated them.
Based out of Okinawa, Japan, Jennifer was a member of Combat Logistics Regiment 3, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force. She loved boating, scuba diving, yoga and music.
She was a math wiz in high school, and received six medals while serving with the Marine Corp, one of which was the Humanitarian Service Medal, for the work her and her unit did following the earthquake that ravaged Pakistan last year. She also was the sponsor of a young African child through her church’s missionary undertakings.Which one of these two women would you be proud to stand next to, call a friend, and more importantly an American?
1 comment:
Excuse me, she died defending whose country?
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