Dear Hannah Montana, My Dad Is Dead. Please Send Concert Tickets.

Upon first reading this news story, I was instantly shocked. Let's face it: Anyway you cut it, telling people your father died in Iraq (who, it seems, was non-existent) is messed up and quite despicable. The fact that the lie was made to win, of all things, concert tickets, makes it even worse.

Of course, the other side to this is something that, as a writer, I've always been cognizant of when entering contests of this nature: sympathy will always out quality.

Now, before you lash me, let me state: I haven't read the essay. It could be fabulous. And it's not to say that an essay that was truthfully written about such a scenario wouldn't be quality. Obviously that isn't the case. What I'm saying is simply, when judging a contest, many times sympathy or even guilt will easily overshadow the true purpose of the contest: to find the best essay, writer, what have you. No doubt, the girl and her mother realized this. Otherwise, the essay would have consisted of how the girl simply wanted to go to the concert or how she was an upstanding young girl. Yeah, yeah.

Contest organizers are threatening to take away the girl's tickets. On the one hand, I can't blame them. On the other, is this acknowledgement that they didn't award the girl the tickets based on the actual essay, but more on the fact that her father had supposedly perished in Iraq? I can only assume that's part of the reason why no further decision has been made to take back the concert tickets. I'm aware that there's many sides to this and it goes back to the whole James Frey, "is it still worthy if it isn't true" bit that revolves around anytime a supposed biography or personal reflection is found not to be true.

In the end, no matter what happens, you can't for one second believe that the mother wasn't aware of the consequences of being discovered. They might have won sympathy for the essay, but I doubt the sympathy will go much further than that.

The sad part in all of this is that the girl was only 6 years old. Oh boy.

Update: Look as if they decided to take away the tickets.

Comments

[Melissa Lucy]

Dear Hannah Montana,
My Dad Passed Away On A Motercycle Crash. Can You Please Send Me Some Hannnah Montana Tickets To Hopedale Nunatsiavut Here Is My Box #. P.O.B 63 Hopedale Nunatsiavut. Thanks Alot I Apreaciate It.
Love Your Fan: Melissa Lucy