21. March 2010 by student.

Unfortunately for celebrities and athletes, society shines a spotlight on them so bright even the sun squints. This puts added pressure on them to be model citizens and live by a whole different rule book than the average citizen. Tiger’s life was controlled by his father for his whole life. While growing up his father had a plan for him and that was that. Similar stories can be shared by other stars who had early fame. Child movie/television stars in particular are infamous for getting into various kinds of mischief as they age and go out on their own because they don’t know how to handle a little bit of personal freedom. Some celebrities fall into drugs (The Olsen Twins), some into gambling (Michael Jordan), and sex (Tiger Woods). I do give Tiger credit though for his efforts on keeping his professional life and family life completely seperate. He always put forth a complete effort to keep his children and wife out of his enormous spotlight. I believe his heart was in the right place all along, but unfortunately for him and his family, the rest of him wasn’t. I just hope for his sake and his family’s sake that, unlike many people who fail at succeeding on their own after having so much given to them growing up, he will be able to learn from this and quickly turn things around and not repeat his mistakes. America is generally very forgiving of their athletes and role models if they display a change and come back to win. His family. and more particularly his wife, will take a little more convincing though.

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21. March 2010 by student.

Animal captivity has been a concern long before this particular event. “Shamu” has now taken three victims in its career and could take more if the orca isn’t released soon. The media coverage I’ve seen so far has focused on the whale being the villain instead of Sea World itself. I don’t expect to see anything different either. Sea World is such a happy place for family fun and entertainment. There are polar exhibits where you can watch various penguins swim around and an otter pirate show as well which was my personal favorite growing up. Could a place that has delivered family entertainment for years be to blame? I believe so. When you take something out of it’s natural habitat and “train” them to do things to benefit others, it shouldn’t be a surprise when there is a negative consequence such as the trainer’s death at Sea World recently. Workers may comment how it’s such a shock because the animal had never exhibited that type of behavior before. Well the reality of the situation is it is still an animal. Animals are fairly intelligent, but still mostly primal and rely on instincts to survive. If they are taken and forced into captivity, should we just expect them to go quietly? Look into our country’s history for example. We took Africans out of their homes and trained them to do our work. That didn’t pan out as well as they had hoped now did it.

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