A Beautiful Voice

Whitney Houston, pop superstar and Newark native, dead at 48. The cause either bathtub drowning or prescription drugs. In my mind's eye, Houston, from the '80s, perfect. We have lost another beautiful voice.

America has a nasty little drugs habit. Unlike the past, today's abusers are, by majority, middle- to later-aged affluent whites who begin their addiction easily enough : perhaps a minor sports surgery or mild-prescription. The result : 28,000 people died from unintentional prescription drug overdose in 2007, the year with the most recent data (source: Office of National Drug Control Policy). This exceeds the number of people who died in the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and the black tar heroin epidemic of the 1970s. 

Houston's end crosses all races and classes but must be particularly hard on the black community. She has been a role model and one of many upward steps to the White House.
(Photo from the WWW)