Re: One girl and the John Lennon vigil

marc_catone@xxxxxxxxx wrote: 
Karl Uppiano wrote:

I respect John Lennon too, and I was devastated upon hearing the news of his
death. I can still remember what I was doing at the time. However, I would
have made arrangements to have someone cover for me if I decided to observe
the 10 minutes of silence. It is no excuse to inconvenience dozens of
customers who might have no knowledge or regard for JL at all. I'm sorry she
lost her job, but if I were her manager (or the store owner) I might have
fired her too. Not for honoring JL, but for not making arrangements in
advance.



Well, the problem with objections to this 17 year old girl, most likely
working at the first job she ever had, is that the occasion did not
lend itself to practicality.  The death of John Lennon affected people
worldwide...United States, Japan, England, Soviet Union, Brazil etc.
This was an assassination of a world reknown Renaissance Man, whose
very life, being, and actions were followed avidly, and were
influential upon thousands of lives.  Thus, we are talking about
"passion" here in grief.

It is so amusing to read responses where people sound like the stern
principal in an old 50s sitcom, telling the Beaver, or Ricky Nelson
that he must behave, and should have thought better.

Your objections are coming in a 25 year hindsight...very removed from
the time.  We have no idea why she did what she did...which was one of
the points I was attempting to make.  Which is why I wanted to find out
how the event affected her in the immediate aftermath, and how she
feels about it today.  Who knows...maybe she had planned to participate
in an organized vigil, and then at the last minute, the boss calls her
in to work.  Maybe, she had been unsure of what she wanted to do, but
when 2:00 rolled around, realizing this would be her only chance to be
in sync with so many souls on the planet in saying good-bye...she took
a stand.

So, a slim jim didn't get sold on time.  Someone had to wait 10 minutes
to buy a newspaper.  Another person had to take longer to buy a pack of
Camels.  Someone had been in a pool of his own blood with five bullet
holes in him. Someone lost a husband.   Someone lost a father.  The
world lost a friend, messenger and soul who they identified with.

Do you understand the unevenness of these inconveniences?

Sadly, there are people stricken with grief over the loss of somebody beloved to them every minute of every day, but the world does not stop for the unsung. It's not fair to project your (or my) idolization of the man onto everybody else. Obviously, the people who were stopping in to the convenience store at that time were not observing the silent vigil, nor were they under any requirement to do so. You can try to trivialize their situation as much as you like, but I'll bet you if it had been a silent vigil for Ronald Reagan instead, and it had been you in line waiting for your "Slim Jim" or [insert stereotypically trivial consumer product here], we'd be hearing a different story.



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