was nearly 10 minutes long)

I had gone downstairs to check on the mail at the dorm and they were watching Monday Night Football in the office on a little TV. So I stopped to watch a little bit of that, and this announcement came on.

I was 18 though and had no clue who John Lenin (sic, that's how I would have spelled it) was. I probably would have known all the other Beatles though. Paul McCartney from Wings. Ringo Starr from his hit song Photograph, and George Harrison from "My Sweet Lord". I knew The Beatles, of course, but not by name. I didn't buy albums, nor have friends to discuss popular music with. What I knew of music was what the DJ told me between songs on the radio.

Although, when Cosell talks about an "unspeakable tragedy" the fact is that about 45 people are gunned down in America on an average day. More than that commit suicide, and about 200 die in car accidents. Often young lives cut short, leaving friends and family to mourn - but not a national audience.

It's logical, of course, that people would not want to hear every ten minutes about the death of some Joe or Jane Schmoe that they don't know, whereas we "know" John Lennon and Princess Diana.

But it seems to me somehow, that some of the troubles in this world come from this kind of mindset where "some people are important" and others are not.

And I'm still not over it.

Even after all these years

Not over it, yet.