Someone Explain This To Me

Why does the death of a celebrity electrify the media?

Someone asked me this on Ask Me Anything.

You know, I have no idea. Deaths can be tragedies, but they don't have to be, but of all the factors that make me think a death is tragic, fame is just not one of them.

Death can be tragic if it's preventable - a child trapped in a trunk or falling unnoticed into a pool, someone killed by a drunk driver.

Death can be tragic when it strikes someone healthy or someone who might have had a full and happy life before them if not for the condition that killed them - people struck down in their prime with cancer or children dying of meningitis.

Death can be tragic when it's senseless - people killed in a drive by shooting or teenagers killing themselves.

Death can be tragic when someone innocent is killed via deliberate violence - serial or spree murder victims, victims of child abuse, someone shot protesting an unjust regime.

Causes of death that are painful, that rob the victim of dignity or memory or other key characteristics can be tragic, though, after the causes ravage a loved one, you can also feel relief that the victim is no longer suffering.

People touch lives, add magic or pain, and it shouldn't matter if it's a thousand lives one touches or just one. The life is precious.

Just my opinion. Oh, and that picture up there, Earnest Louis Sulak died a week ago at home, leaving many people who loved him.

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