Leave Susan Boyle Alone

I’ve read too many blogs and blurbs about Susan Boyle’s meltdown in the lobby of a London hotel not to write anything in response.  Note: I will not be using the word “reported” because, frankly, I hope she did yell at those rabble-rousers in the lobby.  She has every right. 

Susan Boyle captured the hearts of millions, my own included, with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s got talent.  Her story is positively inspiring: In loving memory of her mother, with whom she watched “Britain’s Got Talent,” she undertook to win the show.  A more fitting tribute to the woman for whom Boyle spent the better part of her life caring, I cannot imagine.

Being thrust into the spotlight has its advantages — fame, seemingly guaranteed fortune, proliferation of new friendships, and the rekindling of old ones — and its disadvantages.  What we’re seeing now (and have been seeing since the photos surfaced of Susan Boyle with a new hairdo and Burberry scarf flung ’round her neck) is the kind of press championed by all those who believe that what you, the reader, want to see is Susan Boyle dragged through the mud, Susan Boyle dethroned, Susan Boyle exposed for the bitch she really is.

Against this, you must speak out.  You must not allow yellow journalism to sully the good name of a woman who, above all things, is real, and, I would argue, doesn’t have the first clue about how to be fake.  Susan Boyle deserves to get a makeover, to pose for the cameras, and to be a bit of a diva.

Susan Boyle is an inspiration for all those who dreamed but never pursued that dream.  It’s never too late to start living.