September 29, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Mchelle Cottle thinks that Noelle
Mchelle Cottle thinks that Noelle Bush deserves the media attention she's getting because of her family's stance on national drug policy.
Oh, delightful. May I assume that Al Gore jr.'s penchant for driving drunk and smoking pot will get the same amount of press?
But that's a cheap shot. The real problem with this is that Noelle doesn't make drug policy. She's a screwed up woman in her twenties, not a legislator. It's obscene to argue that she deserves to dry out in a spotlight.
It's common to say that celebrity children deserve the spotlight because they get special treatment. But there's no evidence that this is so. Cottle admits that she probably isn't treated much differently from any other rich offender, but then tries to argue that "in California, she might already be on her way to jail for life". Um, no. Not if she were rich, not if she were poor. People in treatment centers who are caught with drugs sometimes get kicked out, which might end their parole, but they don't get prosecuted for possession of crack. And it's hard to argue that her actions took place in the public spotlight, since the only reason we know about it is that another patient violated her confidentiality and called the papers. She's getting special treatment, all right.
The children of our politicians do not deserve to have their private tragedies on the front page. Unless you think it's all right for other people to publicize your mistakes based on what your parents do for a living, the decent thing to do is to keep mum.
Posted by Jane Galt at September 29, 2002 9:26 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links"); ?>