"What Happened To Privacy?"

Maybe it is because I am a South Carolina native, but I am getting sick and tired of the poor "Miss South Carolina Teen" being ridiculed and vilified. Okay she gave a dumb answer to a question posed to her in the "Miss Teen USA" competition. Big deal. But thanks to "YouTube" she has been ridiculed over and over again.

That is what happens these days. You make a mistake and someone captures it with a phone or some other kind of electronic device and then your mistakes, or your sins, are with you forever. Lauren Caitlin, "Miss Teen South Carolina USA," is only eighteen years old. She had a brain freeze, a meltdown, a panic attack or whatever when she was asked her official question on air at the "Miss Teen USA" pageant. She gave a dumb answer. So what. But now that it has been shown and played on all network and cable channels and has had three million hits on "YouTube" the poor girl will be branded dumber than dirt for life.

Not only is it bad that it is being aired on a regular basis, there is also the mean spiritedness that goes with it. The fact that Lauren Caitlin is a very pretty girl just makes people more eager to tear her down. The opinion seems to be that it is okay to hurt her since she is also pretty. Boy is that faulty thinking.

These days every misstep a public, or for that matter private, person makes is captured on a cell phone. Everybody is living in a glass house so there had better be no stones thrown. We learn more about the private lives of celebrities than we need to know or even want to know.

When I was coming along we had a party line on our phone (boy that sounds ancient!). What was amazing is that people were so respectful of another person's privacy that they would hang up if the line was occupied. Today they would stay on the line and take notes.

Honestly folks, did we really need to hear the full tape of Larry Craig's interview for disorderly conduct? I couldn't listen to it. And do we need to know the infinite details of each and every thing that Brittney, Lindsay, Paris and Nicole do? I for one am sick of Brangelina, and every other couple combination to come down the pike. I know too much about Gullianni's marriages, Romney's religion, and McCain's age. Ditto for Hillary's home life and Mrs. John Edwards' illness. Just give me their plans for making this country better.

Privacy is not a dirty word, even though it is often treated as such in this day and age. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Being private does not mean you have dirty secrets to hide; it just means you were not brought up to blab about every squeaky detail of your life.

"Miss Teen South Carolina" messed up a question. She didn't rob a store or murder anyone. Give it a rest people and let her go on with her young life in peace!
 

 

 

 

 

©2007 Jackie K. Cooper

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