It always makes me a little sick to see this kind of disconnect from reality.

The news article suggests that the towns people are the ones at fault.  That 
they should have built her a monument.  That they should have honored her.

Honor her!?  Are you guys off your rockers!?  She writes a book that paints 
the towns-people as hippocrates.  Listen, you may not admire the unexciting 
life of rural people.  I myself don't want to have anything to do with their 
boring and quiet ways.  But I will say this for them, they are honorable.  
Much more honorable then the average urbanite, or the posters on these forums, 
or the spinning media journalists.  And they are certainly more honorable than 
a young lady so star-struck and vain that she didn't mind disparaging her 
neighbors.  Its simply because in the rural life of limited options, individual 
trust plays a much larger role in economic and social dealings.  

Turn your nose up at the rural people if you will.  Apparently you base your 
happiness on very shallow things as this.  If that makes you happy, so be it, 
its your life.  But when you demand that these people honor a woman that 
insulted them, its quite clear to me that the meaning of the word is lost on 
you.  


P.S.  It is not surpising to hear the author came to a tragic end.  I imagine 
anyone who seeks out the momentary glitter of fame usually becomes bitter at 
its passing.  And surely those who sacrifice their relationships with their 
kin and community for fame find themselves quickly rootless and alone.  The 
fame must have seemed strangely empty to her even before it had faded.  And 
once she realized her fame was not the result of inner-talent, when her 
subsequent novels failed because the initial sensationalism had worn off, we 
can understand what drove her to the bottle.  I don't relish anyone throwing 
their own life away.  But all of us should try to learn from it.  Those who 
are glorifying her are overlooking the critical decision she made, to trade 
friendship for fame, honor for a moment in the spotlight.  The posters on 
this forum best come to their senses and realize her decisions were not wise, 
they were altogether tragic.

P.P.S.  Most people who've made wrong decisions in life rarely admit them 
(even to themselves).  So I was surprised to her Grace make this admission 
a few years before her suicide...

	"If I had to do it over again, it would be easier to be poor." 

How we earn our money is probably more important then how much of it we earn.  
Ayn Rand once explained the phrase "money is the root of all evil" as such...

	"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns
	 money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.
	 ...
	 Did you get your money by fraud?  By pandering to men's vices or men's
	 stupidity?  By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more then
	 you ability deserves?  By lowering your standards?  By doing work
	 you despise for purchasers you scorn?  If so, then your money will not
	 give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy.  Then all things you buy
	 will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement,
	 but a reminder of shame.  Then you'll scream that money is evil.  Evil,
	 because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect."