Right to Privacy

For many years I have been baffled by the insensitivity in American society. There is a widespread opinion that Americans have the right to know everything, even at the cost of someone else's privacy and or feelings. When did one individual's right to know override another individual's right to privacy? A recent example of this is the tragic death of Jett Travolta, the sixteen year old son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Within hours of being pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in the Bahamas, there were news releases, blog discussions and CNN interviews discussing the cause and possible contributing factors in his death. Why is it any of our business?

Was the young Travolta's death connected in any way to his parent's careers or fame? No. Then why does it become news to release and dissect? It is sad whatever the cause. To analyze his medical diagnosis or treatment and even attack the family's faith is beyond intrusion, it is a blatant disregard for their loss, their feelings and their right to privacy.

I'm sure that my own personal experiences have made me overly sensitive and considerate of situations like the example above. I remember being a young mother widowed at 27 and being asked by the newly hired pool man, "How did your husband die?", to which I responded, "He asked me too many questions". Was that the nicest way to handle it, probably not, but it really wasn't too nice of him to disregard my feelings and pain in order to satisfy his curiosity. And, on a side note, the pool man stopped asking me personal questions after that.

Whatever the situation is, maybe we should all pause and ask ourselves - Do the details in this situation really impact my life or am I asking the question to satisfy my Puritan interest? If the answer is the latter, then the question should go unasked. It is time to let people, whether they are famous or not, have their privacy, feel their pain without scutiny and not become topics of news for things that are not any of our business.

The Puritan's idea of hell is a place where everybody has to mind his own business. ~Wendell Phillips

~May God help everyone dealing with deaths recent or long past....it is never a situation without pain and loss.