Role Model
A young actor died yesterday of an apparent accidental drug overdose. This makes me angry. Not because he is an actor, but because he may have wasted his life.
Maybe actors, musicians and athletes are too young to realize it, maybe its too much of a burden to put on them, but they do have a responsibility as a role model! There will be a memorial set up for this young man, mostly by young fans who mourn him. He should be mourned. Not because he was an actor, but because he was a person who died way too young. He died for reasons that were apparently completely preventable.
With their fame and glory comes responsibility. One of my heroes was Mickey Mantle. I was old enough when I realized his self destructive path not to emulate him. But what of those Ballplayers who take the drugs. With the money they get comes the responsibility to the youth to set an example. There are those celebrities who claim that the onus is not upon them to set an example. That’s garbage. I’m not impervious to the fact that alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases. There are those who are not addicted, but take the recreational drugs.. Everything has a cost. Maybe the cost of fame and glory is setting an example!
I remember John Belushi, Len Bias, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to name a few. If one kid says "this crap is not for me," because of any one of these deaths, they may not have died in vain!