Am I the only one who found it creepy?

[geeterpicker]

A family member with good intentions posted something on FB yesterday that stunned me. It was a version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah done by something I'd never heard of called The Voice. The singers held cards of the murdered kids and teachers in Connecticut. While I think that song is beautiful and spellbinding, I thought it was painfully misrepresented in the context of murdered children. If people really knew what the song was about, they might feel as creeped out as I did. I held my breath when they started the second verse, because I wondered how they would reconcile the lyrics about being tied to the chair, but instead they jumped to the final verse Cohen wrote. Has anyone else seen it and did you react the same way I did? I am amazed sometimes that people can be so overwhelmed by a melody that they don't hear the lyrics. Sting used to remark how creeped out he got when people would start holding hands and hugging when he sang Every Breath You Take, which is a song about stalking and surveillence.

 

[geoguy]

Not knowing all the lyrics, as you apparently do, I didn't find it creepy at all. Actually, I found that clip rather moving, both for visual & audible reasons.

BTW, a well-regarded LTG member posted it here this morning, but has removed his link at this point. I'll include it here for those who wish to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO64urOFNaY

 

[davismanLV]

I agree with you Brian. People don't think. They pick a very EMOTIONAL song for a very EMOTIONAL situation without care for what the song actually says. They do it all the time. Oh well......

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

You mean like Ronald Reagan and "Born In The U.S.A."?

 

[charliea]

I don't follow the news. Haven't had television for years. No facebook page. Don't even have a cell phone, though my wife does. I think the school shooting was unfortunate, and very tough on the families. On any given day in the US about 6500 people die, many of them badly. Many of them children. These twenty-someting were part of that day's total. Bummer. Life goes on. That's how somebody who isn't incessantly barraged with the media's garbage looks at events.

 

[davismanLV]

Charlie, I have to agree with you. Although I have a Facebook account, I limit my going on it during specific times (like now) when everyone is carrying on about this tragedy. The TV and radio news (which I don't watch or listen to) brings all the horrors of the world and puts them on your doorstep over and over. The newspaper and online sources do the same. It's all a bit too much. It can be overwhelming and it all gets to be a bit too much to handle. You really have to protect your own sanity at some point.....

Bringing every horror of the world to me does nothing but make me very, very sad.... and they keep doing it until I can't function in the world any more. That's just a fact.

 

[walrus]

+1. These poor parents are going though something that I can not even imagine. It makes it much worse IMO that they have the media parked outside their door, filming and commenting on their child's funeral, etc.

walrus

 

[Scratch]

Having lost a three year old child many years ago; I became seriously angry at anyone who would choose to use our child's death as a method of ranting political views or loudly speaking when they didn't have a clue what we were going through. I despised them...

As a parent, all you want to do is survive the grieving process. Those we appreciated were they who came by to mow the lawn without ever approaching the door to say they were here. Those who volunteered to watch our six-year old daughter so she was sheltered from the pain we felt. Those who just sat quietly with an arm around your shoulder. It is pain unlike any other; made yet more painful through others who 'have the answer'.

The media and loudmouths need to get out of their face so those who really care can provide support...

If you think this is a sore subject with me, you're right...

 

[Bikerdoc]

I've been seeing posts on many different forums, on FB, and on Twitter. This is my first and only comment; I never figured there was anything I could say that would have a positive, loving impact so I chose to say nothing. I've always wished that there was one thing I could do or one thing I could say which would make pain go away, but there isn't.


Peace

 

[adorshki]

I never figured there was anything I could say that would have a positive, loving impact so I chose to say nothing. I've always wished that there was one thing I could do or one thing I could say which would make pain go away, but there isn't.

Yeah.
Maybe folks like us're just wired up different, but I never understood why complete strangers feel so compelled to publicly their sympathy for the tragedy of other complete strangers as if it was some kind of expression of solidarity.
Kinda makes me suspect it's more about them than the victims and survivors.
Kinda like Scratch said, for Pete's sake, let 'em grieve in peace. I wouldn't want people in my face either.
Otherwise I can only hope to comprehend it by chalking it up the to the vast range of human emotions and how they'e expressed.

 

[jmac]

I have to admit. This event brought me to the brink of tears many times...to the point where I had to really "pull back" on my thoughts and think of something else.

Kids are killed every day. I know that, but still, this one really hurt

 

[Bill Ashton]

Such a terrible, horrific event...and the media today are saying how townspeople want their town back and the media and visitors to go away so they can get through the grieving/healing process...I noticed they (the media) weren't moving.

I heard a terrible rumour yesterday that the same group that protests outside fallen veterans' funerals was making their way there...this in the context that there was a need/want for a large group of uniformed firefighters at every funeral to block them out. This just gets worse and worse. I hope it was a rumour (that the firefighters were going, wasn't.)

 

[adorshki]

Such a terrible, horrific event...I heard a terrible rumour yesterday that the same group that protests outside fallen veterans' funerals was making their way there...

Kids all over the planet die by the thousands every day because of greed, war, famine..the real heroes are the private everyday people who volunteer to work to prevent this much larger tragedy that our mass media typically declines to cover.
In fairness though, as jmac describes, over-exposure to such overwhelming horror causes anybody with real feelings to withdraw.
Where do you draw the line?
At invading privacy for the sake of selling commercials.
Or like Scratch says, an agenda.