Monday, July 21, 2008

Some Things Just Rub Me The Wrong Way

This is the girl that will forever be known I suppose as Porsche Girl. She was killed in an accident that destroyed her head and dismembered her body. She struck another car and then a toll booth while investigators believe travelling at 100+ MPH. Her parents have won a court desicion allowing them to sue over graphic pictures of the aftermath that made there way to the internet after posting by CHP.

There are any number of lessons to be learned from this situation-privacy issues,free speech,you name it and pile on-every one else has. I constantly see people requesting the pics (which have been pretty well supressed) to show to"My friend who drives too fast and crazy so they can see what can happen" etc.

The one thing I've heard no one mention that really bothers me is why would any one(besides the family) be so excited about this issue?

If it's that she died in a crash and we want to some how touch that moment to learn from it or show some one "Who drives too fast and crazy"- Go to a junkyard -if you can't find a car somebody has died in you'll see dozens. You can touch the steering wheel and know the last person who did died. You may even be able to see their blood or brain spatter. Their lip stick tube may be on the floorboard or their girlfriends pic hanging from the mirror.

I'll tell you what has caused all the interest- she was a stunningly beautiful young girl (and at 18 no time for any other real accomplishments), probably from a wealthy family who after an argument with her father stole his Porsche and wrapped it around a toll booth and awful pictures of her broken body and destroyed head were made available. The fact of her beauty made the morbid curiosity associated with this case inevitable.

If that poor girl had been overweight,with bad complexion,snaggle teeth and a lazy eye we would have never even heard about the case and if we had would have dismissed it immediately on seeing her pre-death pictures. This would have been true no matter what-I don't care, she could have been a nurse returning from a Peace Corp mission to vaccinate children and feed tsunami victims and it would seem kind of sad but,mostly we'd be relieved in the back of our minds she wasn't"one of the beautiful people"-it would have seemed more of a waste somehow.

You know I'm right.

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