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2009 Soap Box Archives
If you're like me, you think that the coverage of Michael Jackson's death has been over covered, exploited, and over sensationalized. Some of the cable channels have been wall-to-wall Michael, and it took the resignation of Governor Sarah Palin to push it even slightly to the side. I mean, how many times do you have to inform the world that a man has died? How many times do you have to state that there were probably drugs involved? How many times do you have to inform people that a person has squandered untold millions of dollars? All these plastic-faced Hollywood reporters have purported to have known Michael Jackson when it appears that nobody really knew him at all. In my humble opinion, Michael Jackson was a deeply troubled individual who surrounded himself with compliant yes men who did his bidding whatever it happened to be, whether it was good for him or not good for him. Michael achieved the kind of planet wide superstardom that few entertainers have ever known; in fact you could probably count them on one hand. I know you've heard it said that he never had a chance to grow up, to have a childhood. I believe this is true but have you ever stopped and thought what this kind of early life was like. It means you work while everybody else your age plays. You're rehearsing a new dance routine while all your contemporaries are going to a basketball game. Nobody has a greater respect for perfecting your craft, for honing and polishing and being the best you can be. But at the cost of a childhood, at the price of growing up in a world you have no hope of understanding. Of being a cash cow before you reach the age of puberty. There's something very sick about this and smacks more of adult greed than adolescent ambition. I think Michael rebelled against his father when he went on his own, he may have cut the apron strings, but he was ill equipped to cope and turned into a quasi recluse, hiding away in his fantasy, trying to change his face into what he wished it looked like, accepting the adulation of the multitudes but never ever being a part of them, and the world just passed Michael by as he sank deeper into narcotics and unreality. It is a sad end to a career which could have spanned even more decades. In my humble opinion the surface of Michael Jackson's talent had barely been scratched, there is no way of telling what his later years would have produced. It's hard to feel sorry for someone like Michael, here's a man who had every luxury money could buy, the adoration of two generations, still able to sell out fifty nights of concerts in London and at the age of fifty showed no dulling of his talent. But at the same time, by what measure do we judge Michael? Do we take into consideration his childhood, or lack of one? Do we think about the cloistered life he was forced to live from a very early age? Do we hold partially to blame all the people who watched him slowly destroy himself and keep their mouths shut so they could keep their jobs? Extenuating circumstances? I think so. Having said all this, I would like to add that I think Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers of the last century, and though musically we worked two different sides of the street, I had the greatest admiration for his work. His talent knew no bounds. Now I think it's time we all left him alone. What do you think? Pray for our troops God Bless America Charlie Daniels
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