Heath is History

I first experienced Heath Ledger in "10 Things I Hate About You." He had a gravelly voice that made me think he was smoking in Kindergarten. He wasn't hard on the eyes either.

I liked him in Brokeback Mountain, but it irritated me that people always think it's courageous to play gay. But beyond my control, he became a gay icon, someone around whom the gay community could rally.

Now he's dead. It's sad. But it begs the question: are we too obsessed with Celebrity in this country? We need to care about something other than so-called famous people.

We're hurting the world because we are paying attention to the lives of celebrities, which in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter. If we were more focused on the war, poverty, global warming, maybe Heath wouldn't have overdosed.

I hope that Heath's death will serve as a wakeup call for celebrophiles. Let's get back to business.