But I would not feel so all alone, Everybody must get stoned

For three weeks now, I've been slowly, but steadfastly, irked when people keep linking the word "tragedy" to Amy Winehouse's death. I do believe that this was a tragedy to those in her immediate circle for losing someone so desperate for help. But, for anyone else, fans or the voyeuristic lookie-lous, I'll grant you it's sad that she was never able to pull herself together, but not 'tragic'. She took the God-given talent she was blessed with and did worse than squander it. She traded it away for the chance to disappear into nothingness.

I was recently berated on Facebook by a young man who vehemently argued that her death was tragic and that addiction is a disease and not a choice. To which I can express my opinion that to a point, drug or alcohol abuse is a choice. Until these substances physically alter your body and brain chemistry, it is still your choice to smoke a blunt or drink into oblivion or smoke crack cocaine. People who have become severally addicted will be an addict for the rest of their lives because they have caused something in their psychology, and eventually their body, to depend on it.

However, there are such people as recovering addicts. People who not only realize the problem, but search treatment and continually readjust their mindset to reach for help and not the crack pipe. This is not an issue where you can just flit it off by saying , "this is me, accept me for who I am." Winehouse's first real big hit was about not only rejecting help, but celebrated in refusing it. Yes, this could have been a work of creative fiction at the time, but given her actions, they spoke louder and clearer than her sultry voice and would eventually make it the punchline for her life. Her autopsy was inconclusive, so it is pure speculation as to what the actual cause of death was, but you cannot put your body through such torture and expect it to live while only a few days, perhaps a few weeks, sober.

My true point isn't even really about her life and death. It's people's insistence to call it 'tragic'. Yes, she died young and it's too bad she didn't let her talent take the headlines. But, I consider other things tragic. Like a Louisiana man confessing to decapitating his disabled 7 year old son with Cerebral Palsy. Or a three year old little girl's death and the evidence found couldn't convict a selfish mother who didn't report her missing for nearly a month. Or a countries so wracked poverty but the severe violence around them prevents any aid from reaching them. These are things I find the cause for great suffering.