By: Rico Austin
Incredible, Princess Diana is dead. How can this be? What happened? The fairy tale was supposed to end with “and the princess lived happily ever after for many, many years, “not with the twisted wreckage of death, devastation and drunken driving.
As I watched this horror unravel, the familiar pain of losing a loved one engulfed me. Diana was someone I had never personally met; yet, through her years of notoriety, I felt as though I knew her very well. She brought pizazz and sparkle to the dowdy royals, while remaining regal in her demeanor.
Lovely Diana. She was beauty and light; compassion and tenderness; impetuosity and fervorence. The world watched as she married a prince, nurtured her children, suffered the humiliation of her husband’s infidelity and publicly declared her own. We saw how compassionate she was with the sick and how gentle she was with children, especially William and Harry. I sadly grieve for them, as I too lost a parent at a tender age and know the desolation they are feeling.
As her life unfolded, we wanted to know that she was finally happy – able to thumb her nose at the family that plucked her from “common” life, then used it as a rod against her. Happily stripping the title “Her Royal Highness” from her name, they looked on with disdain as her popularity grew even larger. Little did they realize that a title does not a person make – admitting to a few flaws could never divert the love of the people that she so easily related to.
And yet, it was our admiration and obsession with her life that could have been the indirect cause of her death. Our perpetuating need for more information brought about demand. Our fascination brought big readership and huge dollars to the media. “People Magazine” has said “that she appeared on their cover 47 times, more than any person.”
Is there a lesson here? Should we stop following the lives of fascinating people that make a difference in this world? How do we stop the hounding and invasion of privacy and satisfy our curiosity at the same time? The media displays what sells. They write about the things we want to read about. As long as there is a market there will be the paparazzi and the domino effect that follows.
Let’s face it, “Princess Di” stories meant “big bucks” to those who relentlessly haunted and taunted her. Perhaps from this tragedy there will come some honor to the thieves who stole her privacy and perhaps her remaining years.
Below is what the Editor at DAS TOR then, wrote underneath the article.
Rico wrote this article for the DAS TOR on the evening of finding that the “Lovely Princess Diana” was no more. He could think of nothing else and went straight to his computer and let his feelings do the writing. This short story was immediately put on the front page of the next issue. Rico went through hundreds and hundreds of Princess Di photos before selecting the perfect one. Just so happens he selected to use the same photo for his story that Time Magazine did for their cover page. Only difference is that Time Magazine showed up on stands several days later. He has proven again and again of his very unusual and artistic mind.