Respectance.com

K-Swift was a well respected and successful on air personality, DJ and music mixer, entrepreneur and role model for women in the music industry.  She was best known in the Baltimore club scene, hosting her show on WJZ radio station.

K-Swift, aka Khia Edgerton died a few days ago after she dove into her above ground pool and broke her neck.  She was hosting a party at her house, and shortly after midnight decided to go for a swim.  There were other people in the pool and there were lifeguards present.  She didn’t surface immediately, but it took a little while for people to get worried and dive in for her.   No one gave her CPR. The ambulance got there 8 minutes after the call, and she was pronounced dead.  Police are investigating the death, although it is being ruled accidental.  Khia was a trained lifeguard.

She had been DJ ing since the age of 11 and was a successful business woman.  She owned her own graphics, management and production company, had her own radio show, and played the club scene.  She gave a lot of her time and energy back to the community and loved children.  She is remembered by everyone as a great, ambitious and loving woman.

“Her love and passion for everything she did was the key to her success” said WJZ station manager Howard Mazer.  “She is truly a person that both the radio and music industry will miss.”

Her death has once again proved the internet is a rallying point for mourning and remembering.  Online memorials and tributes have been created in her memory on several sites including Respectance.  Her friends and fans are dropping in regularly to remember her and her work.  She’ll be missed in the music world, in her community and by her family.

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A series of brutal stabbings this year have been plaguing the streets of London and have taken the lives of several teenagers. Frederick Moody was killed yesterday July 17th, 2008.  He is the 21st teenager stabbed to death in London this year. These murders have left many parents feeling pain and grief over the loss of their children. It is a death that no parent should have to endure.

The Respectance team is grateful that users are creating tributes in memory of these innocent lives lost. In addition to Frederick Moody, tributes have been created for the following teen victims:

Ben Kinsella (16), died June 29th.
Shakilus Townsend (16), died July 4th.
Melvin Bryan (18), died July 10th.

These murders have also left a wave of concern and fear for London citizens. It is good to know that police are taking some initiative in this series of killings by issuing searches and confiscating knifes. We would like to hear your thoughts and concerns regarding this crime wave and how law enforcements are handling this serious problem that is hitting the streets of London.

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His breakout role came as Ennis, in his Academy Award nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain. The groundbreaking romantic drama featured Ledger as a 1960’s era cowboy who falls in love with another man.  The movie follows their complex relationship over 20 years. Some critics heralded the movie as a ‘breakthrough’ film for gay cinema.  It was a demanding role, and a brave choice for Heath Ledger to accept.  The movie created a lot of controversy.

His role as the Joker in Dark Knight is in intensely dark role.  He was apparently warned by Jack Nicholson about it.   Heath withdrew from people to prepare, and succeeded in delivering an excellent performance in this key role.  According to the reviews out so far, his performance is one deserving of the Oscar nod.

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I’ve been spending some time looking through our tributes from the backend.  Which ones are visited most, which ones are commented on the most.  You get the idea.  It’s good for us to understand how you use Respectance so that we can continue to improve the site to serve your needs.

What surprises me all the time is the number of visits some tributes get versus others.  Often the most famous people have very few online memories left for them.  Pope John Paul II for example was a great man, well loved, and his death was mourned by millions world wide.  Some one created an online memorial for him, many have visited the tribute, but so few have commented.  A large number of our member are Polish, and I would have expected them to have personal memories of ‘their’ Pope. I am not sure I understand why they haven’t left many.  Perhaps their grief is too personal to share. 

I’d be interested to hear what you think.  What is it that makes you want to visit someone’s tribute online?  What is it that makes you want to leave a comment at an online memorial for someone?  Your input is important and valued. 

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Two seventy year old women were convicted today of the premeditated murder of a couple of homeless men. Not once, but twice the pair took a homeless man in, housed him, fed him, cared for him. All along though the women were planning the murders of the men. They preyed on those members of society that most of us don’t even see, let alone care about.

Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75 had taken huge life insurance policies out first on Kenneth McDavid in 1999, and then on Paul Vados in 2005. These women were after money. Nothing else. Greed drove these septagenarians to commit the most unthinkable crime. Cold blooded, premeditated murder.

Police became suspicious after the pair of women made two life insurance claims under almost identical circumstances. Both men had died with trauma to their upper bodies. The women had run both of them over with their 1999 Mercury Sable. The women were sentenced to life in prison, but at the ages of 75 and 77 that surely won’t be very long.

You can come together to remember our ‘forgotten’ members of society - the homeless here at Respectance.

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