Hundreds of insensitive, die hard paparazzi lined the entrance of Heath Ledger’s Soho apartment as his young, lifeless body was carried away on a gurney. All cameras were aiming to shoot the million dollar photo of the dead Australian film hero.

On January 22, 2008, Heath was found dead in his apartment located in the Soho area of New York City.

According to CNN.com, Ledger was found, “naked and unresponsive facedown on the floor by foot of his bed by his house keeper.”

Almost immediately after the announcement of his passing, investigations of his death took place and were displayed for the entire world to see. It was as if the media desired his death to be more tragic, so they plotted to print monstrous amounts of articles probing people to look towards drugs as the cause of Ledger’s death. All of these sneaky antics were done to win more ratings.

Ledger has passed, and now it is time to mourn the loss of a talented, youthful Australian actor. However, it is not the time to exploit his sudden death.

As the Ledger family suffers, images of a distressed Heath crowd newspaper stands, pop up on internet ads and plaster magazine covers. Is this all necessary?

Ledger passed almost two months ago, yet he still remains the star of so many tabloids. Since his death, many more beloved souls have passed on. These lives, just like Heath’s, were just as important through the eyes of their relatives and loved ones.

Due to the death of my uncle Jerome Starr, I understand the extra pain that has been inflicted upon the Ledger family due to the exploitation involved with the situation.

It was nearly impossible to turn on a television or radio without hearing some sort of brief covering the accident that took place at Miller Park on July 14, 1999. On this date, a crane referred to as “Big Blue” claimed the lives of my uncle and two other brave men out of the sole desire of creating a stadium that would be the new home for the Milwaukee Brewers.

In a time of extreme devastation, all our family yearned for was time to mourn without the constant bombardment of reporters and images of the crane crash itself. Unfortunately, our desired peace was not granted until months after the accident occurred. One can only begin to imagine the privacy the Ledger family craves.

Though one may interpret this column as one more article added to the collection of exploitation, that was not my intention. The bottom line is this: stories of Heath’s death must come to a halt now. Instead of delving in the details of his death, we should put our energy into mourning the loss of a true legend.

In addition to the media’s draw towards insensitive exploatation, it has been providing a scapegoat from the true issues facing our nation.

The fifth anniversary of our participation in the Iraq war is coming to a near, yet it has been easier for us to center our attention on the many flawed and devastated celebrities in pop culture.

For many Americans, breaking news surrounding celebrites such as Ledger have provided a major distractions from the more important issues in our society.

As a whole, we need to step forward and pay our respects to the lives of deceased loved ones, and pay more attention to the betterment of our world.