What with the six deaths we've had circulating through the news of late: 4 entertainment icons and 2 republican political careers have been captivating the talking heads. The passings of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett were sad, but not totally unexpected. Ed being 86 and Farrah's well-publicized bout with cancer were not stunners. David Carradine's rather mysterious and sudden death and Michael Jackson's apparent cardiac arrest were, on the other hand, noteworthy if for no other reason than they came as a complete surprise. The shenanigans of Senator John Ensign and Governor Sanford, while inexplicable in this day and age, are likely the final acts for these two idiots.
I call them idiots because anyone in the public eye, which has grown ever more pervasive in the age of cell phone cameras and Twitter who thinks that they can somehow manage to pull off these amazingly stupid affairs is, in fact, an idiot. They sicken me more for their hypocrisy than anything else. Both of these men were very vocal in their disdain for other politicos who did the very same things. They both claimed a moral superiority to others, and both used taxpayer money to fund their illicit activities. Both talked of family values while ignoring their own families. Sometimes, apologies just are not enough, and this is two of those times. There should be no grace period for their unconditional resignation and the forfeiture of their pensions and other government perks. They have abused the system, their constituents, and their families. They are a disgrace to their party and to the American political system. There is no excuse and there can be no acceptance of anything less than removal from office and all that goes with it.
I cannot fathom some of the comments I have heard regarding Michael Jackson. This may be a little controversial to some, but I find the praise from the black community disingenuous and misguided. I heard one mourner state that he, "did so much for the African-American community." Really? Let's see, you want as a symbol a man who bleached his skin to nearly white, had numerous nose jobs to look less like his brothers, who stood trial twice for alleged pedophilia, who married twice to white women, and who had a worldwide nickname of "Wacko Jacko"? What, in all of that, is a positive example of being an African-American? Where is any evidence that he did anything for the black community? He may have been born black, but he spent most of his life doing everything he could to not be seen as black. I just don't get it.
Jackson was known as much for his eccentricities as his talent, and that is a legacy that will not fade. Some have said that his talent will survive longer than his antics, but I doubt that. As I watched the various news reports, as much if not more of the coverage showed clips from his last trial, the baby-dangling event, and other weirdness as it did clips from his performances. I'm not sure that anyone will ever forget that side of his life, or that those images won't flash through the mind as one listens to his music. Maybe a couple of generations down the line, but certainly no time soon. Whatever led to his demise will forever be overshadowed by his larger than life life.
Carradine was a tragic figure to me. He never could (or perhaps would) break free from his wandering Chinese character. In virtually every movie he did, he was Grasshopper at one age or another. If you watch Kill Bill, you will see the aged character that he had personified many years earlier. The events that led to his death are unknown, but it appears to the casual observer as though he may have been accidentally killed during a sexual encounter. I just hope death came after he did. Otherwise, it would be truly tragic.
Poor Ed McMahon had become a parody of himself late in life, apparently broke and broken. His death was tragic because it didn't come with dignity or soon enough. It seems as though he lived longer that he thought he would, and paid dearly in the end for it. A giant of a man reduced to a shadow of himself. Truly sad.
Farrah Fawcett...there's really not much I can say about this one. I think she actually did more at the end of her life than she ever did leading up to it. She brought to us a cautionary tale of the ravages of fame, told partially in her own illness and that of her husband's and son's illness of drug addiction. She brought an awareness that her illness can strike anyone, irrespective of status or fortune, and that no matter how beautiful you may have been, in the end you are just flesh and bone.
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