I, too, am upset by the death of Princess Di, but in a different and —by far — less popular way than the majority of you.

You see, it saddens me how people across the world and this country have reacted to her death: with false or misunderstood sympathy.

Everyone wants to let everyone know that they are upset and angered and mourning, but the fact is that no one outside of her immediate family and friends is capable of that.

Unless we really “knew” her, we cannot mourn her loss.

For most of us, our connection to her is a very weak one; something mentioned about her here and there in the print or broadcast media, a joke made about her on Leno or political cartoons and tabloid reviews.

But none of us “knew” her, cared about her, loved her.

The loss we feel is the equivalent of the loss we feel when a soap opera star or a comic book character dies.

Her loss was that of the princess in a fairy tale.

She was no longer a person to us, but a character in a story that unfurled on our television sets day by day.

While it is natural to be upset that the story is over, let’s not delude ourselves into thinking we were somehow attached to the person herself. We never were, unless we knew her personally.

I think it would make her very sad to know how many people pretend to be touched by her death.

Most of them are the same people who spawned the frenzy that ruined her life and forced her to disconnect.

We kicked her around for most of her life by watching her so closely without regard. and now pretend to care. I can see how that would hurt.

If you really want to find people you can mourn someday, look to the people you hold dear to you — your friends, your family, your loved ones.

Let them know you love and care for them now; don’t wait until they are gone.

Then their loss will be real.

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Ryan McGinnis

Sophomore

English