Whitney Houston's death and C. Wright Mill's "The Promise"

Whiney's Death: A Personal Trouble or Issue?

Hello class. It's shocking that Whitney Houston died almost two weeks ago. For some of you, her death may not mean as much to you. Perhaps the only knowledge you have of her was that she had a drug habit, she was married to Bobby Brown, and that she did a disastruous reality show in the early 2000s.

I remember her from growing up and she left quite an impact on my life. She was one of the first pop stars for me as a teenager. Over the years, I watched her meteoric rise and also beared witness to her tragic ending. Check out one of her videos. This was one of my favorite songs of hers:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+and+I%27m+your+baby+tonight+by+whitney+houston&view=detail&mid=166889E54B6E5B34C5E0166889E54B6E5B34C5E0&first=0&FORM=LKVR12

You may wonder how this is connected to C. Wright Mills? Well, for one thing one issue that Whitney faced was drug use. She admitted to using illegal drugs and died of an overdose. While her death and her drug use may seem like personal "troubles", it brought to my attention the issue of prescription drug use. From what I observe, this is really turning out to be an issue. There have been several celebrities who have died from prescription drug use over the last few years, from Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, and Pimp C. Was this Whitney's personal trouble or is it in fact an issue? What do you think?

Another thing to point out is that celebrities have been dying of prescription overdoses since the word celebrity came into existence. Take a look at this link that shows all of the celebrities that have died over the years:

http://www.pharmacytechs.net/blog/18-celebrities-who-died-from-prescription-drugs

Astonishing, isn't it? How is this connected to Mills ideas and what relevance does it have to ordinary man and American society as a whole?

I'll miss Whitney and at the same time, her death gives us the opportunity to consider Mills' concepts and they ways that an individual is shaped by history and in turn shapes history.

Please respond and try to connect this weeks topic to Mill's sociological concept in your own words. Until next week!!

Professor Applewhite
Follow or Tweet me at @resilient1

Welcome to the chaos and order in everydaylife blog

Hi folks,

Welcome to the introductory entry of chaos and order. I hope that you all had a good weekend. As you probably figuree named out, I had to change the name of the blog because for some reason, the name was alreasy taken. In any case, I am looking forward to working with you all this semester. Please feel free to contact me if you have any problems at sapplewhite@bmcc.cuny.edu. See you on Tuesday.

Professor Applewhite