Please help me know whose life has value to DU progressives?

[efhmc]

Progressive military personnel? Past Progressive Presidents? Progressive columnists/writers/activists? Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, children and other kin of progressives Democrats? Progressive Hollywood celebrities? Progressive people from all walks of life? I don't understand the need to stand in condemnation of others, as misguided and alone and wrong as they might be. (Those who love blaming can call out to the teachers of my youth who taught me that all humans have worth, crazed followers of Christ that they were.)

[Horse with no Name]

1. ALL life is of value

I don't understand the OP?:shrug:

[Monkeyman]

3. All Life I agree

[efhmc]

6. ANS and the nasty remarks about her and the lack of respect

for her sad life and passing. People are angry that so much time was spent on her death and not the deaths of those in Iraq. As thought she had some control or something to gain by being dead also. Every person that dies in this endless and unnecessary war is important and every person that is killed residually in Iraq is important. It is not a contest. They all should be living long and healthy and happy lives.

[Horse with no Name]

11. I wasn't a fan of hers

but for some inexplicable reason, her death saddens me in such a way I cannot explain.
It seems everyone around her wanted something from her or was taking something from her and in the end...she had nothing left for herself.

[efhmc]

25. She seems to me like an analogy of

how we use people and spit them out once we are though with them in the US of A. You are "fodder" for our amusement and once we are done with you, into the trash you go.

[Horse with no Name]

26. Yep.

That is exactly right.

[BuyingThyme]

2. Is this a death penalty thread?

[efhmc]

7. I am sorry but I do not understand your comment.

[BuyingThyme]

10. Oh, it's an Ann Nicole thread. It looks like a capital punishment

thread, deciding which life has value and all.

[efhmc]

13. No, I do not believe in capital punishment, either. It is all at one

with me. I do not think I have the capacity as a human to decide the worth of another human, alive or dead. Strange idea that it might be.

[BuyingThyme]

21. I'm with you all the way, Efhmc.

Maybe a little further.

:hi:

[liberaltrucker]

4. This is Lounge fodder

:popcorn:

[uppityperson]

5. I'm a progressive and Life has value.

Some don't use their lives to great positive value though.

[efhmc]

8. So does that mean that some lives are more valuable than

others?

[uppityperson]

12. It means I value some people more than others.

[Horse with no Name]

14. I look at this differently

I think it is a matter of "life" vs. "legacy".
Everyones LIFE has value.
Everyones LEGACY...eh...not so much.

[uppityperson]

16. That is a good way of putting it.

Life is valued, we all live, we all die. What do we do in the meantime is what I base a person on.

[efhmc]

15. Of course you do. We all value those we love and hold dear

more than those we do not know. That is different than saying that they have NO value.

[MedleyMisty]

9. All life

It's one of the basic tenets of my being. It's been built into my worldview since I remember being conscious.

All life is equally priceless.

[smoogatz]

23. What about mildew?

It's alive. What should I do--just let it take over my shower?

[Bluebear]

17. It would be quicker if you just tell us what answer you're going for

So we can disappoint you sooner. ;)

[smoogatz]

18. Some lives are more interesting and/or meaningful than others.

That seems obvious--no? It's not about "value," per se. By all indications, Anna Nicole Smith was coarse, vapid and without talent of any kind. She rode her big, fake tits to fifteen minutes of fame, then married a rich old geezer, then got screwed out of the money she'd screwed her way into, then got really fat, then lost a lot of weight, then died of unknown causes at the age of 39, amid rumors of drug overdose and choking on her own vomit. It's not the most inspiring story ever told, IMO, and nobody's been able to explain to me what, if anything, they find moving about it. And yet they are moved--and there's no talking them out of it. And they're upset when people like me think their response to the whole thing is, well, goofy. I still don't get it, frankly. Help me out.

[Horse with no Name]

29. Or

Here was a small-town girl whose father abandoned her and was raised by a single mother who worked outside of the home.
She didn't have enough money so her daughter got a job at the local chicken shack where she met--I'm sure she thought at the time--the love of her life. She dropped out of school. She had a baby. He abandoned her and her baby. She moved to a big town where the only skills she had for her resume was the fact that she worked at a chicken shack and dropped out of school.
What jobs were available to her? She didn't have the highest IQ and I am sure she thought her only asset was her body.
She used her body to make a living for her and her child.
Because she was pretty...it surely wasn't long before the first of many came along to exploit her.
Obviously this woman struggled with demons...and I will be the first to say that she was basically talentless...but other people were happy to live off of her misery and her struggles with drugs and her weight.
She was a tortured and exploited soul.
As a Progressive...you should understand that perhaps if this woman had access to a better life...most likely none of us would have ever heard of her to this day.

[smoogatz]

32. As a progressive who's worked more than his share of crappy jobs,

been unemployed, sick, broke-down and shit out of luck, all without the benefit of photogenic titties, I'm always amused when other progressives tell me what I should understand about the problems of working-class people. I've had that chicken-shack job (construction labor, landscaping, short-order cook, phone sales, bartender, and so on), been stuck out in the boonies living from check to check with bills to pay and mouths to feed. I think the issue, for me, is what our notion of "celebrity" has become—the sick, love-hate triangle constituted by those whose only offering is a vapid exhibitionism, the fawning/exploiting/hounding media, and the voracious, slack-jawed voyeurism of the zombified American public. That's what killed Anna Nicole Smith--the temporary life of excess with which our culture rewards minor celebrity. It sure as hell wasn't working in the chicken shack. And all those girls who stayed behind--the shy or self-respecting or merely ordinary-looking ones--if they got flattened by a runaway truck tomorrow, would anyone notice? Would the DU vulture-squad hold a big hanky-wringing boo-hoo-a-thon? Well, no. The whole business, including DU's response, is absurd, pathetic and perverse. The only tribute this episode deserves is a thoughtful examination of what celeberity's become in this country, and how best to avoid it.

[saracat]

19. Thank you.This is a wonderful post and you are so right!

I have been shocked at the lack of empathy displayed by many not only on DU but also in my community and family circles regarding ANS passing but I have to remind myself not to judge them either.I can honsstly say I do not respect or understand the hate.All beings are equal and contribute to our society and any one of us would be missed.Thank you agin for a meaningful post.

[Bluebear]

22. You said it! nt

[smoogatz]

24. All beings are equal...

I respect Buddhists in almost every way possible, and I know it's humanocentric and everything, but I think it's right and just that certain benefits should accrue to those with big brains and opposable thumbs--not least among them the fact that we no longer have to put up with bedbugs, lice and hog fleas, just to name a few.

[efhmc]

27. I love the niceties of life and would grant them in abundance

to all of us.

[smoogatz]

28. Well, there you go.

I think you're probably a better and more generous person than I am. Me, I'd be perfectly okay with killing the little bastards off entirely.

[stillcool]

20. To me...We are all the same...

When I die, I do not expect CNN to have a running obituary on my life and times, and call it news. I don't watch the shit, but can not understand how anyone could approve of the sensationalized exploitation of a woman's life and death.

[Horse with no Name]

30. Nor would I want that

I can think of a couple of episodes that involved wanton sex and other indiscretions that I would rather not be discussed 24/7.:blush:

[efhmc]

31. If I had them. I would actually pay big bucks not to have my life

spread out for others to see. I have often not been the best human around but those who love me still do. Thank goddess.