Tag: military life

Death of a Diva


      As I sat around yesterday, watching Whitney Houston’s Funeral at her church in Newark, New Jersey, I wondered about a few things. Why was this on television on such a channel as the World’s Leader in News? Why was the flag in New Jersey hanging at half-mast for a singer and actor, who was an addict and alcoholic?  What right was given to the Houston Family to force us all to watch this funeral and why?

        In the past many stars and singers have died who deserved the same coverage or better.  Native New Jersey people, like Frank Sinatra, when he died didn’t get the flag at half-mast. Other stars and singers also died from drugs and alcohol across America, yet they did not get the honors New Jersey’s Governor gave to Houston. Why?

         I do not have the answers for much of these questions and I am not proud or happy to have to raise them either. Isn’t it amazing though how one person from Newark, New Jersey who died due to more than likely her own fault, is celebrated so loudly and so large? Yes Whitney Houston did a couple of decent films and had hit recordings with her voice, but someone tell me where and when did she serve her country in military life style and  when did she become a politician that contributed to our way of life? She didn’t at anytime, so why the Half-Mast Salute?.

       As I watched many people file to the podium of that church to speak about Whitney, I wondered, when was her real last concert, her real last recording, how long ago and far away did Whitney begin to lose her voice and vocal cords?. And why? I know the Houston Family, and her Aunts and GodMother and ex-Husband will never answer these questions or see them, but how long ago and far away was the Whitney we saw singing in the movies and videos and on cds?. Will we ever know, I doubt it, because like many celebrities, before her, her past and her addictions and habits and lifestyle will never be really shown. Her death revived memories of Judy Garland’s, years ago. A singer no longer with the ability to push out the songs she used to turns to alcohol and drugs to soothe herself and ends up dead, because the addictions overcame her.

        The fears famous people must live with are real, so are the needs to help them support their fragile personalities and to shore them up. Yet, in the end, it should be family and friends who do the shoring up, and it should be done without the abuse of drugs or alcohol.  Who is responsible for a star, turning to drinking and drugs to survive?. Those who enable them with the drugs and drinks and don’t say, that’s enough or no you can’t anymore!. Money buys anything, fame pushes it further and wham, we end up with the Death of a Diva!

      In the end those who let Whitney drink and do drugs are the ones that should answer for this all, she is gone now and no one can speak for her. Whitney I am sure, would have told us had she survived who started her down this road to an early death, but, it is too late now isn’t it?. The Death of a Diva, is the death of a talent and heart so big, it may never be forgotten!.

Odds/ Ends/ History


      Things to do come to mind, each day I wake up and in pain I find, I can’t do this, nor can I do that, work has been over for me for over a decade, amazing isn’t when your only 56. The Naval injuries caught up to me at 46, after I served 16 years in the military, and the back and neck spinal injuries do slow me down. Then I have PTSD from childhood and military life, sleep apeana, and many minor things going on. So, the question really becomes how long does one go on living when so many things keep happening and your own body starts to fail you? No one can tell me anything that’s for sure, then we have the TIA, and a minor stroke that I had a few years back. Is fate beginning to tell me life is short?

        As a Disabled Veteran and one who enjoyed military life in three branches of service, I think did I do right in serving my country? I think I did, and because of it here we still sit, free and a republic and democracy thrives. I would never trade the United States for any other country as my homeland and I don’t think a normal thinking individual would either.

       That said, can someone please tell me what the hell is the deal with this election cycle and why the Republicans can’t make a choice? The Debates and Primaries will continue and the Republicans are still stupid enough to smash and tear each other down and no real clear front-runner comes forth, because of this circus they are running. If your going to bash and stomp on one another,not a one of you will ever beat Obama and The Democrats, you just keep giving him ammo to shoot ya down with in the General Election.

       We have had many subjects I have blogged about over the timeI have been doing this, but, none has been so stupid as recent news reports of an Affair between JFK and some girl in 1963. Americans are well aware of President Kennedy‘s ways when he was a President and years before that in the Navy and more. So why would some woman, come forward now, 50 years after the man is dead? Of course profits to sell her book, money is always the motivation and she claims it is to get it off her chest. She didn’t bother in 1963 to get him off her chest did she, even if he was the President and Married with children!. Sad fact isn’t it folks.

         Then we now have the found audio tapes, of what transpired the day Kennedy was shot in 1963. Tapes, that show he was to go to one hospital not the one he went to. No one answers the question of why that change was made that day, but it was. The Kennedy assassination after 50 years still drives theories, ideas, and points to facts, that it was a plot to kill him. Sadly the law and history can’t prove if the whole thing was a plan to kill him or not and if so what of Oswald, Ruby and others the fingers were pointed at? We shall never know, because our own Government doesn’t want us to know.

        Whether the assassination of our 35th President was a plot to overthrow the Government or not will never be known or released if it is known. The facts that get me is not the assassination itself, which I watched as a child on TV in school. but the history afterwards. Some questions come to mind for me always regarding it all.

         1) Did the failed Bay of Pigs have anything to do with it?

         2) Did the Mafia actually kill Kennedy?

          3) Who really was Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby?

         4) Why did Mafia Kingpins celebrate Kennedy’s death?

          5) Who the hell thought up the stupid single bullet theory anyway?

          But those are just a few simple questions, and believe me, I know my history and many things few realize regarding this assassination. What I don’t know is why the American Government would bury it all? No one will ever understand, because they won’t tell !.

       So as I close this blog today I think not only of Politics, not only of assassinations and history, I think of the past, the future and the search for truth! may we all get the truth one day, and may we live in peace!.