parasites

Surfing the channels as I am wont to do on any given day, i stumbled across a "show" entitled "My Super Sweet Sixteen". Oh Christ what is going on here??? Approaching her 16 birthday there appeared the most miserable little leach of a girl, obviously spewed from the volcanic pits of hell. From what I could gather in the moments I could stomach this tripe, her parents were about to throw a birthday party for this little animal. Hell, I'm all for birthday parties. My parents never went that far, but I understand the sentiment and wanting to thrill your kid on such a special day. This party however was thrown at a cost of a quarter MILLION dollars. I thought I'd heard wrong but the number came up a few times and my hearing is quite adequate. No clowns and ponies for this chubby little rodent. No way. South Pacific fire eaters and palm trees and rap stars and dancing bears and midgets and drag queens and fireworks and more stuff than a boxcar full of party planners could dream up then pull out of a hat. There was an actual scene where the birthday piggy handed out invitations to a waiting group of other little farm animals. This seemed to be a planned event in itself as there were twice as many greedy little hands awaiting an invite than there were invitations. This left twitching, disappointed and humiliated classmates standing in a burning heap wondering why they were not asked to join the "party of the year". After all, what good is a party like this one is shaping up to be, if you can't make somebody cry?
OK, I watched more than I let on. It was admittedly brilliant on the part of the producers i guess as human nature does not easily turn away from abomination, blood letting and the unexplainable. It was obvious that cruelty was a major part of rewarded behavior in this family's idea of child rearing.
Before the party the little gifts were sprinkled about by mommy and daddy. The diamonds bracelets, shoes, hotel suites and three or four outfits the kid would change in and out of during the course of the festivities. The rehearsals came next. of course, for the staged, grand entrance of our little queen. Party on Garth. The party itself was beyond description here. Basically a ballroom filled with the writhing, whooping offspring of the local elite. Among them seemed to be girls either about to burst into flames over the fact that this party was better than the one daddy had thrown for them, or plotting little Kitty's taking notes on how to outdo this shindig when their own time came. There were the obligatory pronouncements that this would be the party everyone would remember forever. "The best party ever".
Then came the end of the evening when the party pig of honor was lured outside to receive the grandest gift of all, her new Mercedes Benz. At this point there was something terribly wrong in tiny town. Tears began flowing down those porcine cheeks and shrieks of " you have ruined my life" were heard from our little star. My God, it was the wrong color! The car was the wrong color.
I can't bring myself to go on with what ensued here, so I will continue to the part where I have to challenge this sort of behavior, not on the part of miss piggy, but her parents and the producers of this show. Miss piggy herself could hardly be held responsible as she'd quite obviously grown up in an environment devoid of any sort of humanity. I am fully aware of the desire to do all that is humanly possible to make your kid happy. If one has the means then, by all means, give your kid the best chances possible in this life. Here is where i must part ways with the methods displayed on this train wreck of a program. Would it not stand to reason that perhaps our birthday girl might have been offered a choice by her parents that allowed her to possibly do some good in the world with the obscene amounts of money spent on this one evening?
Perhaps it might go something like this..."Hey darling, we thought you might like to think about something here. You know how there are so many less fortunate people living in thee world? You know how so many kids go to bed hungry at night? How many cannot read or afford medical treatment? How many will never reach their full potential in life because they cannot afford an education? What do you say we take the money we were going to spend on a party that will last just a few hours of your life, and actually change some one less fortunate's life forever? We could actually help somebody out, in your name. Think of it... You will carry this with you for life. If you don't really care to give someone a new chance, then what if we were to do something like help to save an endangered species or something. What if we were to dig a well for a village in a third world country? Or ten wells? How about you take a little time and think of a charity that means something special to you. Oh, you can keep the car and the diamonds, we just want you to think about it. We'll even straighten out the botched color choice, OK?"
Having seen the program I'm quite sure the kid would have thought about all of this for a full five seconds before turning them down but at least the option was on the table for a minute there. Had options like this been offered at an early enough age, she might actually go for it.
I guess I have to bring this rant to an end at some point so why not bury the bones here. In a capitalist society there is nothing wrong with making money. All the money you can. There are those with a brilliant history of charitable giving and selfless assistance to those in need. Perhaps many more than not. I have no figures on this. What I would hope in the future for those who would humiliate themselves and their kids on national television, think about what sort of kid you are raising and what sort of kids they will raise. What it might mean if your kid were to give a a kid who has nothing but dreams a second hand musical instrument or some books. There are so many possibilities that charity can bring in the lives of those that have so little. One less quarter million dollar birthday party could be just the start.