Green Room

Houston fans complain: ‘Our tax dollars entitle us to attend private viewing’

posted at 1:56 pm on February 18, 2012 by

Which part of private memorial ceremony do Whitney Houston fans not understand? CBS News New York reports that a viewing of the fallen icon limited to family and friends was held on Friday at a funeral home in Newark in advance of the funeral, which is today. And her grieving fans are not happy that they were “excluded.”

Newark resident Charlene Williams is quoted as saying:

Cissy Houston should come out and wave to us and say thank you. She shouldn’t have them keep us away. We bought her music. We helped succeed in what she had done over the years.

One can understand fans’ heartfelt desire to say their farewells to a performer they admired, but this one expects the singer’s mother to cut short a solemn final visit with her daughter’s remains so that she can blow kisses to paying customers?

Even more revealing are the views of residents who believe their tax dollars somehow entitle them to attend a private service. Here is resident Floyd Bishop:

I’m a taxpayer in the city … born and raised in this city … They should stop treating us like animals. We’re taxpayers … We made this lady who she is today.

Resident Shawn Holsted voices a similar grievance:

Taxpayers paying for all this, treating us like we’re from the street or something. Make no sense.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a story of little consequence, but it carries an important, and cautionary, message about how far the sense of personal entitlement has come in twenty-first-century American society.

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I gots rights!!!!!

Thicklugdonkey on February 18, 2012 at 2:40 PM

We’re taxpayers … We made this lady who she is today.

and I demand that me and my family get to go on a vacay with the Mooch !!

burrata on February 18, 2012 at 3:07 PM

Seriously, the entitlement mentality is out of control. We are seeing this with the FDNY Firefighter test. Minorities do not want a level playing field. They simply want the job regardless of what they scored on the test.
Someone has convinced them that they have a right to the job because of their skin color.
If you are a white canidate for the job anyinfraction in your passed no matter how minor, will disqualify you. Not so if your one of the protected class(black,hispanic,women ,gays). Felony convictions are being ignored in order to pass them thru.
Notice I didnt say Asian. There are not many on the FDNY but when they join the ranks they just take the tests ,score high, and become part of the culture.They dont self segregate like the crybaby class. In a job where brotherhood and trust count as much as bravery skill and knowlege,It is heartbreaking to see these s…bags walk all over a tradition of self sacrifice and think nothing of it. Remember everything is owed to them.
PersonalyI could not take a job from someone who scored higher than me. I was raised with a sense of right and wrong. This bunch ,not so much

Thicklugdonkey on February 18, 2012 at 3:13 PM

Did I miss something?
These people seem to be saying that all these years Whitney Houston was a civil servant on the public payroll…

I’m a taxpayer in the city … born and raised in this city … They should stop treating us like animals. We’re taxpayers … We made this lady who she is today.

And now her funeral is being paid for by the city government.

Taxpayers paying for all this, treating us like we’re from the street or something. Make no sense.

single stack on February 18, 2012 at 3:20 PM

Everything surrounding the celebrity culture is creepy.

Nothing wrong with being an anonymous auto mechanic, kids.

BakerAllie on February 18, 2012 at 3:21 PM

If there was a single taxpayer dollar spent on this, then every elected official in NJ should be jailed. If any of these adoring “fans,” …..you know what, to hell with it. One more dead crackhead. I’m good with that.

DrScottMD on February 18, 2012 at 3:22 PM

Newark resident Charlene Williams is quoted as saying:
Cissy Houston should come out and wave to us and say thank you. She shouldn’t have them keep us away. We bought her music. We helped succeed in what she had done over the years.

I bet if this were MA, you’d be an Elizabeth Warren supporter, Charlene. “No one becomes successful on their own, and must give a ‘fair share’ back,” and all that.

Wethal on February 18, 2012 at 3:26 PM

They’re just whining that they can’t go to ebay with bad prints of their cell-phone photos. “Last photo of Whitney! ACEO 8×10, $3,000″

PXCharon on February 18, 2012 at 3:32 PM

Wasn’t millions spent on Jackson’s funeral with a big chunk of it paid for by the LA taxpayer? Security, police, blocking off streets, barricades, etc.

Blake on February 18, 2012 at 3:39 PM

Cissy Houston should come out and wave to us and say thank you.

Good lord, Cissy has just buried her child, and you’re complaining that you weren’t acknowledged?

Selfishness squared.

rbj on February 18, 2012 at 4:07 PM

I’m a taxpayer in the city … born and raised in this city … They should stop treating us like animals. We’re taxpayers … We made this lady who she is today.

Resident Shawn Holsted voices a similar grievance:

Taxpayers paying for all this, treating us like we’re from the street or something. Make no sense.

Sales taxes only, no doubt.

Joe Mama on February 18, 2012 at 4:12 PM

I’m wagering most of those trying to get in – and all of those complaining – are net tax consumers, not payers.

But of course there are tax dollars being spent – the cops have to keep these creeps in line and away from the private functions.

Adjoran on February 18, 2012 at 4:28 PM

I remember a few years back, some Mexican singer died in LA. I don’t remember her name. There was a full scale riot among the people trying to get into the funeral home. Then again, this was back during the time when drive bys at funerals were common place.

Blake on February 18, 2012 at 5:39 PM

“… message about how far the sense of personal entitlement has come in twenty-first-century American society.”

Among some elements of what passes for twenty-first-century American society perhaps.

clippermiami on February 18, 2012 at 7:48 PM

well Howard

somebody should explain to them that paying taxes and not benefiting is called “wealth redistribution”. quite a few people know all about it and while they don’t like it, they deal with it.

teejk on February 19, 2012 at 8:05 AM

O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!

ya2daup on February 20, 2012 at 8:42 AM