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  • » Name: Amanda Bassa
  • » Location: VA
  • » Member Since: 09/21/07
  • » Bio: student, future change maker, and everything you wouldn't expect me to be.
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The Undisputed Truth

Death Is Another Part of Life


November 28, 2007 | Tags: Sean Taylor

First and foremost, my condolences go out to the family of Sean Taylor. Normally I don’t find myself too phased when high profile names that I never knew personally or even necessarily paid attention to are taken from us, but for some reason (and not necessarily the obvious one) this whole thing has me pretty bitter.

This isn’t really anything new, but it still offends me nonetheless. Why is it that when people die from acts of violence, the media feels that it’s necessary to recite everything that the victim did wrong in life? Yeah, Taylor had a criminal record. Woop-dee-fucking-doo.

He just died, his family is in mourning, and now is truly not the time to be bringing things like that up.

For real, it’s almost disrespectful in my eyes. And it’s almost like it takes the blame off of the people who did the shooting and puts it on the victim. It honestly baffles me that people could sit and put pen to paper and write out words to portray a victim of a senseless shooting in any sort of negative way so shortly after his death. Even when that victim may have been a role model to children, to up-and-coming football players, and to his teammates and colleagues. Nope. Somebody, somewhere, always has to bust out with the negative. I wonder how those same people would feel if their legal issues were announced to the world right after they died? Hm? You might as well get the file from the police station and recite it at the person's funeral. When it comes down to it, what's the difference?

So, shame on the media for bringing things like this up at times like these. I just can’t say it enough. Imagine what happens when Taylor’s 1-year-old daughter grows up, and types her father’s name into a search engine on the internet in an attempt to create memories of him that she never got to have in real life, only to read stories (written by people who probably didn’t even know Sean) that acknowledged his death while broadcasting his mistakes to the world.

All of this got me wondering, though – what if I meet my own doom in what would prove to be a newsworthy way? How will people remember me? If somebody who didn’t know me had to write a story about me, what info would they end up being able to dig up and use? Would my negative actions outweigh my positive ones? Lord knows I got my share of mistakes I gotta live down. But will my mistakes live on forever, or will they get buried along with me? If my mistakes live on, will they be used as lessons to hopefully help teach people that they don’t have to make the same mistakes that I did? Or will they merely taint my name forever?

How do you think people will remember you when you’re no longer here? Really think about that for a minute. Are you happy with the answer your mind settles on?

The answers you come up with may be nothing more than a hypothesis, but one thing is for sure - you have a lot of (although not all) control over the legacy that you'll one day leave behind. So use the days you have while you still have them. You never know when it's all going to unexpectedly be over.


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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