As the news of yesterday’s tragedy involving Cory Lidle began to flood the media, I was astonished at both the depth of coverage on the plane crash as well as the length of coverage on the major sports networks. One could hear the news on the radio, read about it on the internet, or watch ESPN coverage which lasted for hours.
My heart is truly saddened for the Lidle family. When you are a dad, you know how much your kids and your wife depend upon you to take care of them. Not just to take care of physical needs, but the emotional needs that a young child and a wife grow used to having. So what can we do as fans to help make this situation better?
While prayer is a mainstay for those that believe in God, one of the biggest things we can do to help in these situations is to stop being so enraptured with the death of a celebrity. Since when does the death of any athlete demand twenty-four hours of news coverage. It is a sad and tragic event, but people die daily around the world and it does not mean we must stop the "presses" and change all of the headlines. Cory Lidle may have been a fine man, husband, father, and an athlete, but Jesus Christ he was not. By the way, this applies to all athletes and celebrities not just Mr. Lidle. I felt the same way about this as I did when Princess Diana died in that terrible car accident or more recently when Steve Irwin died in the bizarre stingray accident.
We, as human beings, have a morbid obsession with death. The family of Cory Lidle does not need to see his name or the images of a burning high rise on TV all day, and yet, there it is plastered on every news source available to mankind. Mind you, some reporter is scouring the neighborhood looking for video footage of the plane actually hitting the building. Better yet, some guys is going to try and sell his homemade video of the accident to a major news agency or publication. That just disgusts me!
When Steve Irwin died, there were those who wanted his best friend and cameraman to actually release the footage of Irwin getting stabbed by the sting ray. How insensitive is that to his wife and kids? How disturbed are those people?
I may not have all of the answers about how to mourn for a lost loved one. For me and my family we seek comfort in prayer and in the belief that the Creator of this universe has a higher purpose for Cory Lidle. For those who do not believe in a God, I don’t have an answer about the proper way to mourn. But I can say that I believe the right thing to do is to let this family grieve in their own way without the intense scrutiny of the media.
As the news of yesterday’s tragedy involving Cory Lidle began to flood the media, I was astonished at both the depth of coverage on the plane crash as well as the length of coverage on the major sports networks. One could hear the news on the radio, read about it on the internet, or watch ESPN coverage which lasted for hours.
While prayer is a mainstay for those that believe in God, one of the biggest things we can do to help in these situations is to stop being so enraptured with the death of a celebrity. Since when does the death of any athlete demand twenty-four hours of news coverage. It is a sad and tragic event, but people die daily around the world and it does not mean we must stop the "presses" and change all of the headlines. Cory Lidle may have been a fine man, husband, father, and an athlete, but Jesus Christ he was not. By the way, this applies to all athletes and celebrities not just Mr. Lidle. I felt the same way about this as I did when Princess Diana died in that terrible car accident or more recently when Steve Irwin died in the bizarre stingray accident.
