FEB 22 — Whenever a celebrity dies, along with the public outpouring of grief comes the vampires of empathy.

This special group specialises in belittling the public for caring about “some celebrity” instead of some “far more deserving” individual.

A dear friend of mine, unfortunately, joined the vampires with this Facebook status: “It’s not that I MIND people going all [crazy] that Whitney Houston has died, it’s just that I wish people went just as [crazy] over some of my fallen heroes, like Hunter S. Thompson or George Carlin.”

Steve honey, your heroes died awhile back. Ms Houston’s just died. Yes, it’s a pity that more people know the name of a pop star than one of my favourite comics and the founder of gonzo journalism. But why make people feel bad about having different heroes than yours?

The thing about human beings is we’re born with a weird little trait called empathy. It allows us to feel; it helps us care.

Empathy isn’t about the head. It’s about the heart and you can’t always choose who or what you care about. Some things resonate more with us than others. It’s human nature.

When you belittle the things that move another person, it displays a smallness of heart and mind. A person might feel nothing seeing a stranger sobbing over the loss of what seems as “trivial” as the death of a household pet or a favourite singer. But it doesn’t give the person an excuse to trivialise another person’s pain.

So your neighbour’s dog died and she’s upset. You think: it’s just a dog. You’ve never had a dog. You think they’re smelly, disgusting and that people spend far too much money on their pets instead of, like you, spending that money on charity.

What gives you the right to tell her not to cry? What makes you worthy of convincing her that she shouldn’t waste her tears on an animal?

I wish I could say so to the person who responded to the global mourning of Whitney Houston with “She’s just a drug addict!”

How maddening human nature can be sometimes.

But to Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston was more than his co-star in the smash film “The Bodyguard.” He saw the eager-to-please personality who worried constantly about being “good enough.”

“Off you go Whitney, off you go. Escorted by an army of angels to your heavenly father. When you sing before him, don’t you worry. You will be good enough.”

The circumstances of her death touch some of us more than others because both her life and her death gave us much. She inspired generations of singers and her music formed the soundtrack to many lives. And her downward spiral was heartbreaking to watch as we learned, as she did, that all the money in the world can’t heal a broken soul.

In the end, it’s not about berating people about not caring enough. Sometimes, it’s a gift to just care at all in a world so ridden with cynicism and apathy.

Sure, there are causes that need highlighting; there are people out there that need help or sadly ignored people deserving some recognition. But you’re not going to win followers or elevate your heroes by belittling others for who/what they care about.

If you want to champion something, don’t do it by ridiculing those you hope to win to your side.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.