Ugly Stars

    Stars, the epitome of astronomical beauty, are seen as nothing more than a "blemish" in the otherwise alluring black sky. The Onion presents an article hinting at the greedy and unattainable desires within most of the highly privileged. Ironically, these people claim that stars should be removed because of their excessive light pollution and ugliness, when in reality they have destroyed the beauty of nature with their artificial lights and demands. It brings the issue into light when the author writes "...that the light pollution emitted from the celestial bodies was distracting and made the heavens look cheap." How is it possible for stars, who are labeled celestial, giving the same connotation as the heavens, to be called polluting? It's as if we think we can hold the stars of the sky in the palm of our hands like a small coin. The article continues, introducing these individuals with demands "...that our space agencies immediately remove the unsightly stars..." They almost believe it to be their divine right for these things to happen just because they demand it. However, this only emphasizes their broken perception of life itself. This impossible desire to remove the stars shows how this want for everything has no ultimate end. Instead, it simply spirals over and over again, until nothing is left to gain. The author writes how in the end, even after removing these stars, they only felt "relieved." Not happy, but relieved. They saw these universal beauties as a threat to everything they worked toward. Like this threatening existence of the stars we see it to be, we instead are taking that position. We are a broken record, making no noise but the decay of our own tragic end.