The Way I See It

Now that Michael Jackson’s body has been laid to rest, let’s focus on his spirit. I watched the public memorial service and couldn’t believe the message that was relayed. In fact, the only person who presented the real Michael Jackson was Brooke Shields. She brought him to life and made him human.

What bothered me the most was the constant theme that Michael Jackson was all about race and empowering African Americans. That wasn’t the impression I got from him, having watched him perform for decades. (MJ and I are the same age.)

Michael Jackson’s message was that race was a non-issue. His concern was with the humanity of every person, regardless of race. He told us that we were all the same no matter our skin color or nationality or religious beliefs. We were people. Michael Jackson focused on our similarities to bring all people together.

So maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Michael Jackson did do more for people of color than first meets the eye. But it wasn’t because he preached “black power.” It was because he preached – and lived – “It don’t matter if you’re black or white.”

RIP Michael.

Of course, that has never stopped me before.

I know I’ve neglected this blog as well as my others. Shame on me. I’ve had many thoughts on the passing scene and have shared some thoughts here and there around the internet. It’s time to get those thoughts together and put them right here, under my own name.

Sometimes I have very deep, convoluted thoughts and sometimes I have quick snippets of ideas. One problem I face is finding the time to organize my mangled mess of ideas so others can follow. The other problem is that I’m never sure if a one or two sentence post is enough to be of interest to anyone. Or if I’m even capable of condensing my thoughts into one or two sentences.

I am going to try though. This will be an experiment, in a way. We’ll see if anyone bothers to read this blog after being dead for so long, if the long posts or the short ones attract more readers and if I can mix local with national news enough to keep me interested.

Let’s see where this goes.