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I have nothing against being rich...

but I do have a big issue with people who are so rich, and have been so sheltered from reality their whole lives, that they haven't the faintest clue of what reality is really like.

A "BFF" (Best Friends Forever) of Paris Hilton, recently pleaded on TMZ.com (http://www.tmz.com/2007/06/09/an-open-letter-from-a-paris-bff/):

"I was also in the courtroom [yesterday] and saw a judge hand down a sentence that NO ONE in an even remotely similar position would receive!"
and
"When she was released she was still very upset, to the point of being physically ill -- and partying was the furthest thing from her mind. She is a loving and sweet soul with a big heart whose character has been misjudged because she was born into a family of wealth and, yes privilege. Now, I ask you to please stop for a moment and try to analyze why it is that you are so troubled by her?"
Paris Hilton broke the law. She was caught driving recklessly and DRUNK, endangering other people's lives.

She was ALREADY given a break. Her sentence for the above violation - mere probation.

But then she flipped off the judge, and she flipped off society, by repeatedly violating that probation, and driving without a license. This, a girl worth tens of millions of dollars, who could trivially take a cab or hire a driver. She decided that the law doesn't apply to her and acted accordingly.

It's precisely her privilege the judge said doesn't matter. It's precisely her privilege that led her to believe that she doesn't have to follow the same laws as everyone else, that she is in effect better than the rest of us, because she is rich. The judge said "No way missy, this is a nation of laws, and not of men. You have flaunted this court's judgement, this court's lenient treatment of you, and now you are going to jail."

Well, Ms. "Best Friends Forever", any us lowly plebians would go to jail if we violated a court's order. Even though your (and her) attitude is that Paris is better than everyone else, fortunately this nation IS still one of equal treatment under the law. Paris goes to jail too.

It seems she is having a nervous breakdown in jail. Frankly this illustrates how far removed she is from the day-to-day reality the rest of the "unprivileged" human race lives in. As if 40 days in jail is the end of her life.

When millions of people every day in this world are starving, being blown to bits, are being raped, murdered, assaulted and enslaved, Paris' few weeks in the five-star celebujail hardly qualifies as nervous breakdown material.

Ultiimately, this will be good for her. The next 40 days will be a time in which she can reevaluate her place in the universe. We may hope that at the end of that time, she has put herself into a more reality-based perspective.

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