Profiting from Tragedy – the Caylee Anthony doll

The commercialization of civilization.

It is a shameful time. A time to reflect about how low things have sunk. And how crass and how utterly mercenary some people have become. How they think that material gain excuses any insensitivity to the pain of others.

I was shocked that a business from Jacksonville even thought they could profit from poor Caylee Anthony’s death, when I read this post on CNN: Outrage halts launch of Caylee Sunshine doll. The post went to explain that the public was outraged that Jaime Salcedo, president of Showbiz Promotions created a doll called Caylee Sunshine. I am glad that people stood up for what is right and denounced this act of profiting from tragedy. It tells me that there is some hope left for us. That there are still good people around.

When asked about his profit motives, Mr.Salcedo demurred, saying that he was only doing a public service. He was donating money to charity. But, was he? The dolls were priced at $29.99 and he was planning on donating $3 to charity. He had not even identified a charity for donation yet.

Regardless of whatever excuse Mr.Salcedo has come up now in the face of public uproar, the very thought that he even took this idea to fruition is sickening and insensitive.

This is what commercialization of our civilization has done to us. Look around you: Bernie Madoff, John Thain, Joseph Bruno, Ted Stevens, Jack Abramoff, Citibank Jet purchase with public money, AIG spa treatment with public money, and now hundreds more scams being revealed.

We’ve gotten so deep into consumerism and materialism that people don’t matter anymore. Nothing matters except money. That’s what got us in this economic mess. The greed. The corruption. The insensitivity. The lobbying. The racketeering.

Maybe this is our time to stop and ponder about our missed path.

Presumed guilty until proven innocent?

The American media is a grand old institution. For most part, they do a great job covering various sensational cases. But one Achilles heel that I have noticed time and again, is the propensity of the media to presume guilt even before some cases go to trial. This has been a particularly virulent form of aggression and it does great harm to the defendant.

In the past few weeks, two cases come to mind: the Rod Blagojevich case of the Illinois governor who is accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s recently vacated senate seat to the highest bidder. The press has gone bonkers about this case and every single news anchor I’ve watched so far, has spoken as if Blago is guilty. Truth be told, there are accusations against him, but nothing has been proven so far, because the investigation is still going on.

In the more serious case of Casey Anthony, who has been accused of killing her 2 year old child, the press has tried and passed a verdict on her. Nancy Grace on CNN has been especially unrelenting in accusing Casey of murdering her child.

Now, this may, in fact, turn out to be the case, but that is not the issue I am talking about. I am speaking about the fact that Casey will not be provided a fair trial under the law because Nancy has sensationalized the case so much. Not only that, she has spent many hours accusing Casey of being guilty. There are other people out there, some are “psychologists” who, purportedly, profiled Casey Anthony as a “sociopath” based on scant 3rd hand evidence.

Thanks to Nancy’s innuendo’s, outright accusations and sarcastic remarks, and others like her, who have heard the evidence (3rd or 4th hand), deliberated, tried and indicted Casey, she has lost the basic human right of presumed innocence until guilt is proven in court with no shred of doubt.

While I am all for the media making hay while the sun shines, it must not be at the expense of other human beings. Everyone deserves a fair shake at justice and in these two cases (in the recent past) justice is not being served. Let the police and the court systems do their job. The media, in these cases, seem to have erupted like vultures after a carcass.

Please don’t misunderstand me – I don’t imply either guilt or innocence in these two cases.  I would like to withhold any private opinion – simply because it is not my place to judge until the courts have tried and come to a verdict. I implore everyone else to withhold judgment until then too.

I would urge the media and the people to BE FAIR and BE NON-JUDGEMENTAL – If not for the sake of the defendants, at least for THEMSELVES!