No Crotch-Grabbing. Tho I have not watched any of the program-length tributes to Michael Jackson, I did note that in the coverage on the evening newscasts, his notorious practice of grabbing his crotch during musical performances has been edited away. Good.
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When I heard that Michael Jackson had died at age 50, I immediately thought, "Drugs." In this country, in this era, you are pretty well justified in jumping to the conclusion that a celebrity who dies suddenly at a relatively early age does so from drugs.
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It will be some time before the toxicology results are in, but speculation has already emerged that he will be shown to have died from prescription drugs. I don't know if it was prescription drugs, recreational drugs, or a combination of the two, but if he did die from drugs, his death will not have been for nothing. It will help us wake stupid young people to the reality that drugs are not harmless fun, but were outlawed for good reason, and, in the case of medical drugs, require a prescription because they are DANGEROUS. Then only the people who WANT to be harmed or killed will look enthusiastically upon use of such hazardous chemicals. And if a self-destructive person dies from drugs, the people around will understand that that was a willful act, and be able to use those deaths too as instructive cases, in trying to persuade young people to stay away from drugs.
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The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has a wonderful Public Service Announcement now running that shows two young men (tho called "kids") in a morgue, one dead from illegal drugs, one dead from prescription painkillers. The man in the middle asks "Which one is more dead?" The video should be hard-hitting, and is, for normal people. Disgustingly, some stupid, stupid, evil kids, perhaps on drugs themselves, placed joking comments at the YouTube site where a version of that PSA appears. Some "kids", and adults, deserve to die, and some of those disrespectful clowns may well die young. And feel free to take "well die young" in the sense of good riddance. You can't reach some fools, because they are greater fools than any message can move. Will stoners place jokes on message boards about Michael Jackson's death if it is revealed that he died from prescription drugs? Probably. Everything's a joke to stoners.
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If Michael Jackson died from other cause or causes, not related to drugs of any kind, there may still be some instructive tale to tell. Dr. Nancy Snyderman of NBC News suggested the day of Jackson's death that he was anorexic, under serious stress, and exercising very strenuously (in preparation for London concerts that were to have started in little more than two weeks), and the combination of strains he was subjecting himself to could definitely cause heart problems — fatal heart problems. If her speculation proves true, other doctors with media access will have to evaluate what percentage of what deadly combination could be assigned to which contributing factor, and caution young people against those risks as well. And if Michael Jackson was killed by anorexia, stress, excessive exercise, AND prescription drugs AND recreational drugs, a lot of people might learn a lot of things of value.
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Tho saddened — more than I would have expected — by the news of Michael Jackson's death, I was on the other hand glad that he need no longer suffer from the terrible things he has done to himself. That nose that was so horribly ravaged by quacks under Jackson's insane urging need no longer reproach him nor horrify children.
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Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson ended their famous lives in debt, from different causes. "Fame" doesn't necessarily go with "fortune".
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In the United States today, however, fame often does go with power, and much of what we call "democracy" is little more than name-recognition. People who start out as unknowns have to expend most of their time and campaign funds to simply gaining name-recognition, at all, and then as candidates for a given political office. Any famous person who wishes to run for office thus starts with a huge advantage over an unknown. The famous person need only attach their fame to the office they seek.
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Of course, if there are big negatives to a person's fame, that fame can do them political harm. No one would have wanted Michael Jackson to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, or run any state's Department of Children's Services. But if he had wanted to run for Congress, he'd have had name recognition working for him big-time.
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The deaths of three household names (Farrah Fawcett being the third) in one week reminds us all again that the clock is running, on all of us, and death is the great equalizer: President of the United States or garbageman, billionaire or penniless bum living in a refrigerator box on the street, celebrity or unknown, all of us are being stalked by Death, which will, in good time, get every last one of us. The brilliant comic Steven Wright has a great bit that mocks death: "I intend to live forever. So far, so good." Yes, so far. I wouldn't make plans for a hundred years from now, tho, Steven.
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The grim news this week tells us all: Get your ducks in a row, think about you want to be remembered for, and DO IT.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 4,316 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:59 PM