Michael Jackson

What can one make of the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s premature death? Observing the outpouring of sympathy, one would think that a person of great personal value to millions of people had passed unexpectedly, profoundly, and with great suffering.  But is that a valid portrait of the self-proclaimed King of Pop?

Very few people really knew MJ, and he seemed to have liked it that way. Even fewer knew of his personal proclivities, and he liked that even better. His entourage are all now running for cover, but if they really loved him, really cared about him, why would they go into hiding?  One wonders what they are afraid of.  Maybe they are afraid of being found out that they indulged MJ’s every whim, whether good for him or not.  Where were they when he was allegedly abusing legal and illegal drugs?  Where were they when he bribed parents into letting their little boys spend the night with him and his proclamation that the most loving thing one can do is share one’s bed?  Supposedly they were trying to intervene and he would have none of it.  Some say they persevered for years but he just wouldn’t accept their help, wouldn’t return their calls, shunned them.

So what?  If you love someone, you keep at it.  You do Whatever It Takes. You forget about the money, and the fame.  You think instead about the alleged victims, and you think about the person who can’t seem to differentiate between childlike fantasies and adult (bad) behavior.  You stick with them like glue, and you don’t take no for an answer.  You don’t fall back on the old rubric, “Well, I tried, but he’s an adult and he can do whatever he wants.”  No, he can’t.

Sure, MJ is a tragic figure and has been for years.  He could not regain his stature after his 2006 trial, even if he was legally exonerated.  He fell out of the limelight, and he seems to have loved the limelight.  He was shrinking like a wildflower that once picked, fades quickly.  He went through staff quickly – and why not, since many of them would later sue him – and appears to have been deliberately distanced from the brothers who he claimed slept with girls in the bed next to his when he was a child (umm, where were the parents during these little adventures?).  His fallback to drugs is understandable: many people who grow up in terrible families turn to drugs and drink to take the edge off.

Again, so what?  Well, “what” is that he also lived with the fame that he seems to have loved and hated, and never reconciled.  Very sad.

Will MJ’s fate be a lesson for other superstars?  Probably not.  Elvis’s life and death didn’t send up the red flag over superstardom and its many (bad) attributes.  Nor did other famous, and now dead, stars send a cautionary tale of Be Careful, Don’t Be Like Them.  At least no one as damaged a person as MJ, one that he could grasp and hold on to.

RIP, MJ.  More important, hopefully your many victims will now find peace, as well.  Your childhood was taken away, and when that happened you seemed to have internalized an early life that told you that abuse was only Human Nature.  That you looked no further than your own pain but never resolved not to indulge yourself by foisting the same profound suffering on others is the real tragedy.

(c) Lane R. Hatcher 2009

Sarah Palin

It would appear that Sarah Palin has tired of governing the great state of Alaska. Good for Alaska, too bad for the rest of us. How long will it be before someone rents her and her entourage a house in the Lower 48, and we have to hear from or about her on a far more regular basis?

Can Palin’s inauspicious rise (which, it is hoped, is temporary), bring into focus, again, how poorly many Americans seem to esteem a good education? Palin and her ilk seem to thrive when speaking gobbledygook at various gatherings with those who think that such phrases as, “I choose not to tear down and waste precious time, but to build up this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic free people!” are characteristic of a true – and intelligent — patriot. Is this supposed to have some kind of special meaning to the working class that she panders, err, caters to?

When did putting together meaningful sentences, with careful thought about their consequences, become something that only the Evil Liberals choose to do? When did a good education (i.e., being knowledgeable about current affairs, being able to think critically rather than just utter whatever seems to sound good at the moment, or even know the duties of the Vice President) become a bad thing? When did doing what you say you’re going to do, and changing your mind only when further reflection (rather than political expediency) demands it, become too inconvenient?

Ms. Palin is coming. She will appeal to those who think nothing of what it means to be really free, who believe that a good character is something that can be redefined on a moment’s notice, and who would speak ill of others while quietly doing exactly the same thing (see various Republican governors’ stories of late for a refresher).

Heaven help us.

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