Whitney Houston’s death on Saturday was a tragedy. But many people leapt at the opportunity to point out that a soldier’s death outweighs any celebrity’s.

Correction: No one’s death outweighs another’s death.

Death is inevitable and it’s the one thing that will come to us all. For Whitney Houston, it came too soon.

The war has been going on for nine years. We’re not saying the war is less important because it’s been an ongoing occurrence. We’re saying that the war has not been flashing in Americans’ faces for some time now.

Houston’s death is new information; therefore, it will be in the news for a while. But like most celebrities’ deaths, it will pass and instead become a moment in time that we stop to remember each year.

The death of a soldier is important to the state/city/town/village/family to which he or she belongs. It is sprawled across Page 1 of the local newspapers. People know. Soldiers may not be celebrities but what they do is honorable.

They’re both tragedies, but people have very different reactions and feelings to each.

That being said, the reaction to a celebrity’s death, like Houston’s, only proves the height at which we put them on pedestals.

But you can’t compare the death of a celebrity to that of a soldier — they’re two separate occurrences.

To downplay one person’s death, no matter his or her status in society, is wrong. Death is inevitable for everyone.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.