Confession

I admit it . . . I'm a bit bewildered by the media froofawfaw over Micheal Jackson's death.

In full disclosure . . . I was a newly matriculating monkey when Thriller was at the top of the charts. I stayed up late one night so that I could watch the premiere of the Thriller video/mini movie. It was the music soundtrack of my young monkey days. But, aren't humans known by their impatience and short memories? What had he done lately?

I will say that in his younger days, he really was a talent. He also was, at one time, contributing more to our society . . . he was at the forefront of changing our social attitudes towards AIDS and people, especially children, with AIDS. He was involved more in social causes . . . but he was one of many.

I was pretty horrified by the accusations of child sexual abuse. I was incredulous over his interview with Diane Sawyer with then wife Lisa Marie. He seemed to not appreciate the real seriousness of the charges or accusations. He didn't seem to understand that, true or not, he needed to consider the appearance of impropriety in his future. And, I found Lisa Marie's maternal behavior towards him pretty telling. I found his repeated charges and his own statements to be pretty damning. And, like everyone else found his "evolving" appearance disturbing.

My summation of the person is that he must have been a self loather. I have sympathy . . . I read recently that he once quipped that he'd been raised as a "circus animal." I thought that statement showed remarkable insight as well as revealed tremendous pain.

But, I'm bewildered by the hype and hyperbole surrounding the impact he made on our society. I think the most extreme example was attributed to the mayor of Gary, Indiana who assured people that the Gary, IN memorial would be "befitting the prince of peace." Now, the term prince of peace was in lower case . . . but it does seem to be over stating it, no?

I'm also a bit confused about his ongoing health issues. It seems that not long ago, his attorneys were arguing that he was too ill to travel and sit through a civil lawsuit that had been filed. I believe that his attorneys were saying that his health was so fragile that he would possibly not live through the experience . . . which makes me wonder about this 50 date tour he was planning.

The long and short of it is, I think the media, the handlers, the promoters, etc are continuing to make money off him . . . even after he's dead.