With respect...............

[GillyGee]

I have just read most of the posts about Amy Winehouse. I shall miss her voice and the person she was, yes, even with her demons.

Most of all I feel so sad for her parents, they had tried so hard to bring her back from the edge, I guess she didn't want to listen oh Amy, Amy Amy!

I do realise that there are many parents who for many reasons (illness, war et al) that do have to say goodbye to their children but in the great scheme of things this is surely the wrong way round.

So to Amy's parents, the 23rd psalm:
Mizmor l'David.
Adonoy ro-i, lo echsar. Bin-ot desheh yarbitzayni,
al may m'nuchot y'nahalayni. Nafshi y'shovayv,
yanchayni v'ma-g'lay tzedek l'ma-an sh'mo.
Gam ki aylaych b'gay tzalmaves lo ira ra
ki atah imadi, shivt'cha umish-antecha, haymah y'nachamuni.
Ta-aroch l'fanai shulchan, neged tzor'roy,
dishantah vashemen roshi, kosi r'vayah.
Ach tov vachesed yird'funi kol y'may chayoy,
v'shavti b'vayt Adonoy l'orecha yamim.

[deggers316]

her demons were her drugs which she bought herself ,we all have choices,

[jasmin26]

A little bit harsh i think deggers , the girl had an addiction. The old saying " there but for the grace of God go I " springs to mind for me. Who knows how our own lives would have turned out if we had taken another path.

[GillyGee]

Thank you Jasmin26 - my thought precisely!!

[sandyRoe]

Drug abuse, like alcohol abuse, is often just a symptom of a deeper malaise. She will be greatly missed by her family, friends, and fans. A great pity.

[sara3]

I have no experience of being addicted to anything, but doubt this was her lifestyle "choice".

I feel for her family and friends, and on some level for her fans. I thought she was very talented, although not my kind of music.

RIP.. very sad news.

[wolf63]

Eventually we will all die to to choices that we have made in life. Some people make good choices and some people don't.

She made the original decision to take drugs - but once the drugs took hold she was a victim to their power.

[pastafreak]

Yes...she had a choice - up to a point. But the thing with drug addictions is that the drugs own the victims body. There is little choice there. An addict can have all the support in the world-from family and friends,or specialist agencies. But the sheer physical pull of the drugs is all too often too strong. Some- a minority - will survive. Too many don't.

[jno]

why on earth do people suppose musicians ought to be role models? What a strange viewpoint.

[GillyGee]

I don't think we expect musicians to be role models however by any celebrity having a public profile, the expectations are somewhat higher

[daisya]

Seeing a news item on this, why would someone leave a bottle of Vodka along with all the flowers and other tributes outside her house? Can't believe someone would do that but then perhaps this just shows the mentality of some of her followers.

[NOX]

I really don't think you give young people enough credit to see who and who not to emulate. My 13 year old commented 'Such a shame about Amy Winehouse, but god the poor woman was a car crash'. I don't think she's unusual, I think most kids understand the difference between enjoying someone's music and copying their lifesyle.

[andy-hughes]

I think the notion of fans following musicians' lifestlyes dates back to the 1960's, when the Stones were regarded as the end of civilsation as we know it!

Times have moved on - but some attitudes have not.

I don't think any young person drinks or takes drugs because their pop star of choice does it - as i have said before, they do it because their friends do it, peer group pressure is the source, not idol imitation.

[daisya]

Yes I understand what you say andy but if pop stars and celebrities are on show all the time and known abusers of drugs and drinks, then the fans/followers will think it's fine, that's all I'm saying. It will be seen to be ok because someone famous is doing it?

[starone]

The Road Not Taken

One of many Inspirational Poems By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry I could not travel both
And be on traveler, long I stood
And looked down as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

[daisya]

A very insightful poem Star, if only each of us could choose a way back or have made the right path in the first place. Again I understand but again I say, that youngsters who idolise their heroes will think they are so wonderful despite any flaws they have in their characters. We are all human with failings but those in the public eye have more of a burden to carry when it comes to leading.

[NOX]

Do you not think that perhaps Amy Winehouse dying as she has will in fact have the opposite effect to the one you think Daisya? Don't you think her fans will see how she ended, so tragically and alone and actually that might make them consider the folly of following that? Try as I might I can't see why you think anyone in the public eye has to be perfect, there are lessons to be learned from life all the time, I think just because someone famous takes drugs or is a drunk etc, doesn't mean ANYONE will necessarily copy them. I don't recall hoards of yound snooker fans all going and getting pie-faced because Alex Higgins was a roaring drunk- god rest him, so I fail to see why Amy Winehouse's fans would.

[237SJ]

I was never an Amy Winehouse fan because I didn`t like her style of music. I think she had a great voice and I would have loved to have heard her do blues. In that respect I will miss her because I will miss the singer she would have (in time) become. I think we have been deprived of her potential.

[daisya]

Who knows NOX, I have an opinion on this and that's all, doesn't mean to say I'm right nor do I consider I am, it's just my opinion that perhaps doesn't match with yours or others on here. Sometimes in death people are more revered than in life and that can often be the case where it's a public figure/celebrity, looked what happened regarding Diana. I would hope that young people would live and learn but sometimes their common sense is clouded by the fact that their idol has passed away by whatever means and that's why I feel that people in the public eye should lead by example. My opinion and we have to agree to disagree, I have no problem with that.