FWIW #5: Enough Already!!

   
          For What It's Worth

    by [e-mail]

      Honestly, I was going to try
and not comment on the recent
passing of the "King of Pop,"
(a.k.a. "Michael Jackson"). How-
ever, the media again has gone
out of it's way to fan the flames
of a news item concerning a
celebrity, and once again, we're
inundated with an onslaught of
information and mis-information.
      Perhaps what I find so
puzzling about the media cover-
age is the obvious selectivity in
which certain aspects of Mike's
life are glorified while others are,
for the most part, largely ignored.
To help illustrate my point, consider
the following hypothetical scenario
and try to remain objective while
considering the occurrences in my
little "pretend" story:
      Suppose just for a second
that I grew up in a typical, lower-
middle-to-middle-class neighborhood.
The kid next door was roughly my
age, and we had known each other
since about age five. His race was
not relevant, but go ahead and pick
one - whatever you want - it's not
important which race but just
remember what you chose (as a
point of reference). Okay, still with
me? Good. Now, for the sake of
simplicity (and brevity) let's say I
see this person that I knew as a
kid in, oh...say 5 year intervals
over a forty-five year period. Also,
for the sake of simplicity, say we
remain neighbors over this time
period. This person makes it big
in the entertainment industry. Each
time I see this person, I see change
occurring in varying degrees.
      The first change I notice is that
he seems to actually want to be a
she!  Now, I know all about the deal
how you can be a woman trapped
inside a man's body, and vice-versa;
hey...stuff happens!  I can understand
that. On the other hand, please
don't expect me to take you up on
your invitation to come over and try
the new "hot pink" lip gloss you just
picked up. (You know I've always
been partial to "raunchy red").
      Actually, none of the above is
even remotely strange compared to
the other change I've noticed, though.
How can a guy start out looking more
like the kid who stars on "Everybody
Hates Chris" but is somehow morphing
into something a little more along the
lines of Angelina Jolie (Hmmm...
maybe we should have that sleep-
over we were talking about a few
years back)! Just kidding! (Sort of).
      I notice there's been a lot of
construction going on in his back
yard (just for the sake of argument,
pretend that this neighborhood
has really, really big back yards...
as in big enough to land a small
plane...or build an amusement
park...you know - the usual neigh-
borhood stuff).
      Remember earlier when I
asked you to assign a race - any
race - to my neighbor. Make a
note of the fact that he/she is
now not only a different sex,
he/she's a different race (the race
isn't important - it's just that it
ain't what it used to be)!
      At this point, I have 3 kids
that range between 9 and 13
years old, and my neighbor has
been in the papers for question-
able relationships with kids near
that age group. The finishing
touches are just being put on the
amusement that borders my back
yard, and I understand that the
name of the park is Neverland. I
tell my kids to memorize the first
half of that name, because that's
exactly how many times they
will visit the park while living in my
house: Never! (And I hope he/she
doesn't - for a minute - think that
the fact that he/she occasionally
spins around in front of me and my
kids and grabs his/her crotch is
going to sway my opinion one iota -
positively - does he/she)? I mean,
I like his/her music, and I'm sure his
former/current/undecided fan base
is/was/not sure very proud of him
/her/pick 'em and I hope that loyalty
remains when he/she lands in the
men's/women's/family cell block
(that would have to make for some
kind of strip-search, wouldn't it)?
      Hope you were able to stay with
me that last paragraph. If you did,
remind me again why we're on the brink
of cannonizing this guy/girl/freak? And
didn't I also just hear that he/she/they
died of a heart attack as a result of a
drug overdose?
      Perhaps I'm being too hard on
poor Mike (R.I.P.) and the media...
because, it would be one thing if we
had real problems to deal with, like
the economy, troops coming home from
Iraq, that kind of stuff. But since, clearly,
none of those things are an issue, we
probably have two - maybe three - more
good weeks of Michael coverage, no?
What on earth was I upset about?
Silly me.

    What do you think!