I reject your reality, and substitute my own.

Revoke It

Remember that hubbub about Hannah Montana? The Emmy-Award nominated tv-show? It's a kid's show on the Disney Channel, about a thirteen year-old average girl that just happens to be a superstar pop icon at night. No one at school knows about it, other than her best friends and closest family. I remember when it came out last year - a funny show at times, but generally very annoying. But then again, it's geared towards young girls, not towards 17 year-olds in high school. In spite of my opinion, the show has become wildly successful, with a national tour of the "actual Hannah Montana in concert". It's so popular that entire concerts of over 17,000 people sold out in less than ten minutes after tickets went on sale, all to girls under the age of 15. The average re-sale value of a ticket soared to hundreds of dollars, some even selling at prices above one thousand. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Well, if the public is willing to pay.

Of course, it's not uncommon for some lucky girl to get the chance to go to such a wonderful event for free. A deserving girl it was this time, a girl who won four tickets and airplane-fare in an essay competition. Her essay was heartbreaking, starting with the sentence "My daddy died this year in Iraq." I'm sure that she, her mother, and two of her closest friends will be completely thrilled.

Only problem is, she lied.

She has no father that died in Iraq. Her essay was a fake from start to finish, and "'"we did the essay and that's what we did to win,'" Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. 'We did whatever we could do to win.'" The girl is 6 years old.

It's unbelievable that a mother would condone a blatant lie simply to give her daughter the opportunity to attend a frivolous concert. Sure, the girl probably loves the fact that she got four tickets, but doesn't it bother her conscience at all that she lied? Maybe some other girl wrote an essay on the same subject, but was not nearly as coherent in her writing. Wouldn't she be the more deserving one? In future years, will a lying girl continue the cycle, just imagining that she can get whatever she wants? It's not unlikely. Survival of the fittest, to be sure.

I suspect, though, that the daughter didn't pen the essay. I don't think she even knew that she entered the competition. Most 6 year-olds don't have the capacity to lie at such a level, or to handle so much attention. The mother, on the other hand, seems to think it's perfectly alright to lie for her daughter. She's an egomaniac, believing that her daughter can have whatever she wants, even at others' expense. When questioned by news reporters, the mother responded: "No comment."

Society believes in entitlement. The competition was open and free, and if the system can be worked around, why shouldn't I? Everything that I'm capable of doing should benefit me. Now go have fun at that concert.

But the organizers are considering revoking the tickets. Good for them.

thinkandrew

posted by Andrew @ 3:53 PM