Thursday, June 25, 2009

Beyond the Headlines

The blogosphere and the web, in general, is abuzz after the recent deaths of celebrities Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Because entertainment celebrities appear bigger than life, their demise also seems bigger than death. Though few of us ever personally met any of these three names, we feel as if we knew them because we watched each from the comfort of our dens or bedrooms.

It's a fact of life that, each and every day, thousands of babies are born and thousands of people die. Most of these events aren't the fodder of the internet nor the news media. They are just as joyous or painful, nonetheless.

While the three aforementioned individuals are dominating the headlines, here are some other people who died within the past day or so (found via a simple search of Google News).

Anne Roberts Nelson -- A CBS Television Executive
Frank J. Low -- One of the fathers of Infrared Astronomy
Kyarke Lah -- a 6 year old boy who drowned in Minnesota
Unnamed Woman -- New Jerseys 5th fatal victim of Swine Flu
Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald -- known for treating her own breast cancer while in Antarctica
L. Cornell Lederman -- died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident

This list could go on and on and on. It's simply a reminder to each of us that, while celebrities garner the headlines, the reality of losing a loved one happens every second of every day. Death is a fact of life.

My heart goes out to anyone and everyone who has had to face tragedy today (death or otherwise). Sooner or later, it's something we all must face.

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