Even after a heart attack in 1994, John Mellencamp continues to smoke cigarettes. Now, we don’t have any problem with smoking. We love our freedom, and we don’t cry like a bunch of salad eating pussies if some secondhand drifts over our whipped cream covered “coffee.” But that’s just us. John Mellencamp’s 14 year old son, on the other hand, doesn’t want his father to die.
So Speck Mellencamp has started a Facebook group. And his father has agreed to quit smoking… if and when the group has one million fans.
We’re not looking for easy targets here. Jack & Diane is one of the best songs ever written by anyone. However this takes the culture of social media to a new, disgusting low. Is this where we’re at? Here lies John Mellencamp. Only got 321,430 Facebook friends. Sorry, Speck.
Maybe I’m just taking this a little more seriously than the Mellencamps would wish, but this is life, and life is bigger than the internet, bigger than celebrity, and yes, even bigger than both combined. And that’s something I think we all need to remember.
If you’ve got kids, there’s no seven-plus-digit number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers that could ever collectively be more important, or rewarding. This social culture where anyone can be famous may seem like a celebrity firesale at times, perhaps most tempting to those that once had it and have since lost it. But selling your humanity to buy celebrity is kinda like selling your hands to buy a violin.
Just cut the shit and quit smoking, John. Your kid loves you more than the press, and even the fans, ever will.
Via Shawn M. Smith
