Perspective
Ouf, this journal entry's going to be a doozie.
Someone asked me today if I liked Michael Jackson. Having never met the man, I didn't exactly answer their question but said that I liked his music. Yes I'm aware that he took the plastic surgery thing to the extreme and that there was the whole kid-molesting fiasco (I never really paid enough attention to find out how that ended) and the dangling of the baby out the window but I don't hate him for that, oddly enough. I'd say that I don't find it easy to hate on people I don't know but it happens easily enough. For example- I've never met Lindsey Lohan but I dislike her, simply because I really dislike her movies and music annnd the unhealthy image she often portrays. Why does this make her any worse than a man who allegedly molested a child and dangled one of his children out a window? It doesn't. It really doesn't, and I'm aware that it's unfair for me to hold one over the other simply because I like MJ's music and that gets him a few brownie points where LL has none.
ANYWHO...Yes, the world of music lost another legend. Just about everything about him was signature- his moves, his voice, (the little 'hee-hee' present in every song,) the glove, the jackets, the videos...The man was a genius, and he'll be missed. So yes, I liked a great deal about him.
And the media loved him. The media adored MJ in life and they're certainly having a field-day over his death. CNN hasn't stopped buzzing about it (Yeh- I'm Canadian but me pa's from New York so we watch CNN at dinner time.) and there has been a note in the paper every day- well, more than a note, try several pages or at least three or four articles all on different things...One time it was a photo montage showing the way his face had changed, the other i was about what has happened to his various suits and stuff, and then there was a big party about what was going to happen to his three (Heck I thought there were only two) children. So we're hearing about everything involving this one man who died. Yes he was uber popular, and yes, lots of people want to know all these little details. Personally, I'm not one of them. Michael Jackson has died- RIP. A few articals and specials on the telly were very nice, but it's just been going on and on...And meanwhile what about other matters happening all over the world? Hell, there are more important things to pay attention to in the news besides the death of Michael Jackson. It happened, it's had its spotlight and he will surely be remembered, now please, world, turn your eyes to present matters!
I don't know if anyone else really gets as pissed off at CNN as I do sometimes. When that tiger attacked a man somewhere in a zoo that was all they showed- this one clip of the tiger circling in its enclosure and reports and interviews with people, not to mention the updates on the man who was mauled. (Do tigers maul too, or is it only bears?) But along the bottom of the screen was a tiny line of a news reel with snippets of information on what was happening around the world- terrible things which should have been given more attention than a tiny little flicker of white writing on a black strip continuously sliding across the bottom of the screen.
Same thing happened when the media went through the 'what'll happen to MJ's kids' phase. The big picture, interviews, reports etc. Was all about that and I remember squinting my eyes in order to read the fine print at the bottom of the screen. I can't even remember all that it said, but it mentioned a car bomb and something about a monestry or something of the like being held up. Like wtf, mate? I wanted to hear about that! I didn't want to just keep getting the same info over and over about MJ's kids!
And today, sadly, the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan has gone from 121 to 122. Master-Corporal Charles-Philippe Michaud died in a hospital in Quebec today after having been brought back from being severly injured by an IED- an improvised explosive device. Being that this is primarily a peacekeeping mission, most of these deaths were caused by roadside bombs and IED's. There was a nice article in the paper for him today, just as there is every time a Canadian soldier is killed.
But then you open up the paper to read the last few lines on another page and have to search around all the articles on MJ- just ones like where his clothes are and what's happening to his estate- in order to find it. It makes me wonder why we continue to highlight such little things for weeks, and not someone else who (now this is completely subject to debate) died an innocent death serving a noble purpose- at least from the Canadian perspective. Others might debate whether it is right to spend so much time highlighting the death of Michael Jackson when others who have accomplished more (in the way of civil, national, etc. services) like Romeo LeBlanc, the former governer general (and first Acadian governer general!) who died just the day before Michael Jackson. I know I'm really being Canadian in this journal, but that's what I'm seeing in the news.
Bah. Who has the right to say who should be in the spotlight longer? Important people die every day. For me, the death of my cat was harder to cope with than the death of Michael Jackson though some people would be horrified to hear that and think it was blasphemous. It's all about perspective, people.