Once bitten, twice shy
Last time it was the Columbia blowing apart in the skies over the southwestern US. Now it's this fucking nightclub fire in Rhode Island during a Great White performance. I'm not sure who I'm mad at -- the media, for milking this situation, or the public, for overreacting in a really revolting sort of way.
While the Station fire is a tragedy indeed, the public and official reaction to this has made me wonder if we've collectively lost our minds all together. To see the media saturation and the solemn hand-wringing of public officials in RI to this event, you'd think this is a national tragedy on the level of 9/11.
Jeff Derderian's tearful pleas over the weekend that he and his family are having trouble coping with the horror of this event, yet the ass managed to quell his crocodile tears to point his finger at the band without so much as a quavering note in his voice. He's also done a great job of avoiding talking with the AG or the police, unlike, say, EVERYONE ELSE ASSOCIATED with what happened.
The endless processions of news reports about the fire don't help, showing the same snippets of video over and over again as people fled the building, stomping on one another, interspersed with video of people leaving flowers at the now-immolated site.
For fuck's sake -- one news station interviewed this weeping, hysterical woman, who was thankful that her niece wasn't there that night. Yes, let me repeat -- this woman, openly hysterical and sobbing, lost NO ONE in the fire. The same news agency had an interview with another woman who was "touched by the tragedy" because her husband WASN'T there that night.
The AG for the state of Rhode Island has pithily pointed out that his state is so small, everyone has about 1 and a half degrees of separation, instead of the customary six -- apparently those folks who don't have that sort of connection with what happened at all feel a need to make one up, too.
The day following the event one of the local Boston stations interviewed an AP reporter who grew up near the Station, when it was still a restaurant. How they felt this was even remotely newsworthy is utterly beyond my comprehension.
Some asshole lawmaker in Rhode Island says that he'll FIGHT to make the site of the station a memorial park. This isn't Timothy McVeigh blowing up daycare kids. This isn't some Saudi nationals plowing a 757 into a high-rise office building. It was a stupid, senseless way to die for dozens of people who shared one thing in common: Utterly rotten taste in live music.
If there's a nadir to the tragedy of this fire, it's that 97 people -- perhaps more, since the body count doesn't match the missing persons report -- died watching a second-rate metal band whose prime has definitely passed, during a moment in their career that echoes the waning days of Rob Reiner's classic mockumentary, "This Is Spinal Tap."
Personally, I can't think of a more ignominious way to go out than to burn to death waiting to see a crappy cover of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy."
Comments
The written media have done a far superior job of reporting this tragedy in a way that both describes the facts and inspires empathy and compassion.
I wish the visual media would cease to air the phoney contrition of people like Jeff Derderian as well as the poorly executed "sobs" of camera-hungry "mourners".
It's like watching a badly performed high school play: it trivializes expressions of real grief.
The story that "hit home" for me was a 2-sentence written account of a man frantically searching for his daughter, whom he described as "his whole world".
No video, no sound track, no idiotic babbling from a well-coifed, barely post-pubescent "reporter". This simple but well-crafted story "grabbed me" such that I've made it a point to look for the daughter's name on lists of identified victims, out of empathy for her father.
Thank God for the written word; it's still a better description of reality than all the other media combined.
Posted by: Capecoder | February 26, 2003 06:18 AM
The fire was beyond weird for me in that I grew up in Providence and spent a fair amount of time listening to the radio as I drove around and heard ads for the club on an almost constant basis. West Warwick wasn't the most appealing town to wind up in for any reason and I usually had school work or other things to do. Finding wondrous new dives of night clubs to go see bands in wasn't really a priority.
Of course the attorney general is right in a sense. This is Rhode Island, where people tend to know each other a bit more (especially at lower income levels, the rich isolate themselves a bit from their neighbors) and part of me doesn't want to see the final list of bodies because odds are I'll have known someone on the list, even if only in passing. It's just that kind of place.
Honestly, forget the teary tv drama, the horrific video and everything else. The people who died will be remembered, at least some people survived and if you really want to make a difference, you demand this kind of thing doesn't happen again both through changes in policy and a heightening of common sense, which does not suggest 8-foot pyrotechnics in a 12-foot night club.
Posted by: Chris Barylick | February 27, 2003 08:32 AM
This is in respones to what "flargh" has so daintily written. It's really nice to know that you can be so eloquent of speech without being vulgar. Nice choice of words on many parts of this nice little piece you wrote. Just because this wasn't a 9/11 doesn't make it any less tragic. I know 6, count them, 6 people that were involved with that travesty. Two of which didn't make it, one who is still in critical condition and the other three are still being treated for burnsm, smoke inhalation and such. If you have such a problem with "hand wringing" then don't watch or pay attention to it. Just because people are feeling pain despite the fact that they knew no one in the fire doesn't mean they're not genuine. I knew no one in the 9/11 tragedy and I was distraught over it. Does that mean I'm not entitled to grieve with or for people that have suffered a loss? You, my friend, need to get on the human bandwagon. I love this statement: "Some asshole lawmaker in Rhode Island says that he'll FIGHT to make the site of the station a memorial park. This isn't Timothy McVeigh blowing up daycare kids. This isn't some Saudi nationals plowing a 757 into a high-rise office building. It was a stupid, senseless way to die for dozens of people who shared one thing in common: Utterly rotten taste in live music." Who made you the authority to question people's taste in music? It's just nice to know that there are assinine people like yourselves that do nothing but criticize and run people to the ground. I would hate to think how you would have reacted had someone YOU knew been in that fire. God forbid you'd be doing your own "handwringing" and crying and carrying on. Once again, just because this "wasn't Timothy Mcveigh blowing up day care kids" doesn't mean it isn't as tragic. Let's pray to God that this type of thing doesn't happen to you. It's very easy to sit back and say ridiculous things the weay you did. It's show what kind of character you're made of. A word of advice: Get over yourself and realize that just because you have an altered sense of reality doesn't mean that everyone else does.
Posted by: Craig Heiss | February 27, 2003 10:14 PM
I stand by what I said about Great White. I hated their music when they were popular, and I've certainly heard nothing in the past decade and a half to convince me otherwise.
I truly can't think of a more tragic, senseless way to end your life than to burn to death at a rock concert -- even a good one, let alone a second-rate act like Great White. What makes me the arbiter of people's taste in music? I personally don't give a fuck what you listen to -- but this is MY site, and MY place to air MY opinions.
I'm of the opinion that 96 people lost their lives and dozens more got injured for NOTHING, Craig. It could have happened at a concert for a band I really cared about, and I wouldn't think it was any less wasteful. The fact that Great White are a bunch of tossers is just salt added to those proverbial wounds. Dying for entertainment is a shitty way to shed this mortal coil, period.
While you've focused on my ability to express myself and my taste, Craig, you've clearly overlooked the point of my thesis: The treatment of this event by both media outlets and politicians trivializes the tragedy by trying to focus on anything that will grab our attention instead of what actually matters.
Ultimately, turning that parking lot into a memorial park won't bring 96 people's lives back and won't heal burns. And watching people hoping for their 15 minutes of fame on the evening news shed crocodile tears (or Jeff Derderian, for that matter) insults the real emotional injury that this event has caused for those people REALLY affected by it.
Posted by: Flargh | February 28, 2003 11:50 AM
Craig, while we're putting everything in perspective: Rhode Island/Great White might was no 9/11, just as you say.
On the other hand, 9/11 was no Hiroshima/Nagasaki.
And take it easy... this is a place where editorials happen. Have your own opinion, sure, but don't smack other people down for theirs.
Posted by: Corey | February 28, 2003 05:28 PM
Craig:
Hi, my name is Gail from Rhode Island. Are you
Craig from Rhode Island? If you are, then
please e-mail me. I have not heard from YOU.
Talk to you soon,
Your friend, Gail.
Posted by: gail | August 20, 2003 02:07 PM