Corey Montieth: not an idol.

I would be lying if I said I was not offended that Corey Montieth's death is being treated like a national tragedy.  Why are people holding vigils for him like he's some sort of hero?  He's yet another celebrity drug addict that died from their own stupidity.   Why do we worship these kinds of people?  Why do we celebrate their talents oblivious to their faults? So John Belushi was funny. He sqaundered that on drugs.  River Phoenix, died too soon thanks to addiction.  Corey Montieth?  Same train wreck.  If celebrity addicts should teach us anything, it's that fame shouldn't give you an easy ride or absolve you of your sins.  It should teach us that celebrities aren't any better than the rest of us.

We have an epidemic in this country. We are a society that not only condones drug abuse but encourages it with disastrous consequences.  Drug addiction destroys lives and we just let it.  In some states, we even fought to legalize it.  We shouldn't admire bad behavior.  We certainly shouldn't give weepy speeches about how much the dead drug addict deserves to be admired by his legions of followers.  If anything his admirers should be angry and disappointed at how stupid he was to use drugs. His girlfriend should feel guilty for not doing more to help him kick his addiction and then use her star power to help others kick theirs.

Instead of immortalizing celebrity bad behavior, we should learn from it.  We should work harder to fight drug addiction.  We should mourn Corey Montieth's loss as we mourn the loss of any human, but we should not forget the reason he died or over look the lesson just because he could sing.  We shouldn't even be criticized for not worshipping celebrity addicts like Corey Montieth.

Our role models say a lot about who we are as a person.  They should say something good about us.  The tragedy of Corey Montieth's death, like Belushi and Phoenix and countless others, isn't that he was a talented man cut down in his prime.  It's that he did it to himself and we sat back and watched.