Please Tell Me You Don't Defend This!

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Yesterday I was stunned when I heard the news of the death of Heath Ledger. I’d really never heard much about his personal life, which is the point; he wasn’t plastered in the tabloids all the time for all the various reasons so many celebrities are constantly in the news. I’ve heard since the news broke that he’d had some problems in the past but it still comes as a huge shock. It’s so sad – a handsome and talented young man of only 28 years old with a 2 year old daughter! I couldn’t believe it when I saw on TV today that there has been quite a bit of terrible, indefensible things said and written since his death was announced. One “well-known right-wing religious group” (the television commentator I heard this from refused to give them any more publicity by saying their name) plans to picket his funeral and actually posted on their blog that he deserved to die because he had starred in the movie “Brokeback Mountain.” There were numerous blogs posted on Yahoo saying much the same thing. But when John Gibson, a high-profile personality from Fox News starts his radio show by playing the funeral march in the background while playing snippets from the movie and adds his own comments like “Now he knows how to quit him – he’s dead” along with comments about how he’d heard Ledger was suicidal, maybe it was because of the stock market and that he probably killed himself after hearing the Hillary-Obama debate. Please tell me there’s no one here who will defend these kinds of actions and remarks! I’m filled with anger and outrage that there are narrow-minded and heartless people like this on this planet and on our Internet! Do you agree or does anything go – including respect for the dead and their families? Annie