Charlie Sheen, eh?

I don't blog nearly as often as I'd like to. This is a pretty busy time for me since it's my final semester in undergraduate school and I'm preparing to begin a career. It's currently after midnight and my goal is to wake up at 6 a.m. and go jogging before work. Ha, we'll see how that goes. Anyway, the topic that has been boggling my mind lately is Charlie Sheen. Well, not Sheen himself but the public's obsession with him. I am truly praying for his success while others are taking matters lightly and going on a "#winning" spree while posting jokes via facebook and twitter. Quite frankly, I've been trying to ignore the constant media coverage of Sheen but seeing as though I intern at a news station, he's been hard to miss. My problem is with most average people. Why do Charlie Sheen's rants entertain us? Have we nothing more important going on in our lives?

I can't help but sympathize with the families of the numerous people that have been killed in Los Angeles over the past two weeks because news stations seem to place precedence on Hollywood stars. Lindsay Lohan's alleged stolen necklace should not be breaking news nor should it lead most major newscasts. Yet it does. I attribute this to the public's overwhelming concern with the lives of celebrities. Regardless of what happens with Sheen or Lohan, they'll still be more well off than most that are so pressed to stay up-to-date with their activities. People need to focus on issues that affect them and their communities.

For example, my number one concern at the moment is the rising gas prices in California. My salary has not increased with the price of oil so I am definitely negatively impacted by what goes on in Libya and other places in the middle east. I'm interested in reading and hearing more about that. Also, I can guarantee you Sheen and Lohan aren't stressing about how much it'll cost them to fill up their tanks. My disgust with this country's distribution of wealth is immense and it'll take a separate blog post to describe. Back to the matter at hand, other news is happening in Los Angeles and elsewhere so we need to stop visiting blogs like TMZ and worry less about the lives of celebrities.

Here's some other news. A man from Riverside, CA is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and setting her on fire in front of her six children. Imagine how those children are feeling. Another man in Los Angeles was found dead on the 10 Freeway and was hit at least 20 times. Instead of feeling sorry for him, some commenters on the site were busy making racist comments that indicated that he was an illegal immigrant that deserved to die. Lastly, an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, TX was gang raped and 18 people were arrested for the crime. With the many horrible things happening in this world, I find it difficult to care about what millionaires are doing. I am focused on improving my own life. So Charlie Sheen got fired from a show that paid him nearly 2 million per episode... That's not news to me. His tweets and videos may be entertaining, but the people that die everyday are not unimportant simply because they didn't have "tiger blood" running through their veins. My issue is not with Charlie Sheen because perhaps he really is winning. I just wish society led us to care about important current events. Celebrity/entertainment news should not take up headlines and that's pretty much all I wanted to get off my chest.

What are your thoughts? I'm interested in hearing what others think about all this.

Thanks for reading,

Alexandria B.