I was sitting around with my dad today, watching House. If I’m not drinking on Tuesday, (which is usually a drinking night for me) I try to watch that show with him. For starters, it’s a good fucking show. Second, my dad loves it. Finally, I don’t get to spend enough time with the old man. But anyway, it’s around the end of the show, and it’s a commercial. They start plugging the evening news, and lead with the headline, “Middle school principal dies in the dentist’s chair!“
My father, God love him, yells. “Who cares?”
While I didn’t exactly agree with his reaction, I do have to admit I was kind of annoyed by it. The thought that someone died during a regular root canal freaks me out. It’s an interesting story, to be sure. What pissed me off is that they have to use the woman’s profession to sensationalize it. Isn’t the story interesting enough, regardless of what she does for a living? What difference does it make that she’s a principal?
The whole thing puts a value on a person’s life. Apparently, a principal dying in a dentist’s chair is sadder than a mechanic or street sweeper. I really hope that when I die, my memory isn’t reduced to how I made a living.
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