If The NSA or FBI Revealed This No One Would Have Any Trouble Noticing Its Downside

WHEN YOU ASKED ME what I thought about the accusations made by his daughter and ex-wife against Don McLean, my first thought was "Who?"  

I'd stopped listening to pop music radio by the time he became famous, I heard "American Pie" though not often enough for much of it to seep into my memory.  I didn't find it interesting, a vague, longish list of pop culture references, so I didn't much pay attention to it.

I wonder why his daughter wants to launder the family linen in Rolling Stone, the impulse of famous people and somewhat famous people, those marginally famous and connected with their famous parents or others to display their family linen in the media is something I don't get at all.  If I ever had the misfortune of fame I'd hope that it included wealth enough to warn my entire family that anyone who displayed our family or myself through the media was guaranteed to be disinherited,   And the wisdom to not expose them to widespread notice  where people who knew them would hear what I said.   What I've done here doesn't  have that potential, though perhaps I should be more careful from now on. 

I have no idea how much of what it says in that article is true, neither do I want to.  If she figures she has some legal complaint to make about it she should be talking to the police or a lawyer.  Anything up to that is none of my or the public's business.  If she ever asked my advice I'd suggest that she might want to salvage something out of it so, unless there are actual legal issues which she has a moral duty to report to the proper authorities, she should keep it private.  It might be better for her to enjoy the dignity of privacy instead.   

As it is, as mentioned,  I have no way of knowing whose memory of what happened is more accurate or if none of them are.  That's for them, individually to figure out.    If she and her 75 year old father are never to have a rapprochement, it would be better if we never knew about it.  I'd never write about things in my family if I thought they would violate the privacy of its members, as it is, having no one care about you in the way celebrity brings is a wonderful thing, too.   If there is one thing I wish people could recover it is a sense of privacy and the pleasure of easy, courteous, friendly, egalitarian anonymity. 

Yes, I think I will be more careful, though since anyone in my family is obscure enough for that kind of exposure to not be a great danger, I hope I learn something from this.  

I wonder what her reaction would be, her level of outrage and those who read it would be if she found out the NSA or FBI were looking at the metadata of her online communication, collecting far, far less by way of personal information on her and her family than she gave to Rolling Stone to publish.  One thing she can be sure of now, everyone, including those who work at those agencies and others around the world know a lot more than caused the outrage over that a few years back.