The Comment

What does Amy Winehouse, victims of the current famine in the Horn of Africa, Michael Jackson, and a rape victim from Libya all have in common? They, among others, are the target for what is becoming a common source of pleasure and entertainment for many, and the opportunity for others to spew forth their own unique brand of virtual psychological and emotional terrorism, and that is, “The Comment”.

Almost everywhere you navigate online, facebook, You Tube, forums, discussion threads, news articles, or blogs, there is nearly always an opportunity for the reader to leave a comment, and it is here on this platform that we have an insight into the hearts and minds of those leaving their comments.

And an ugly picture is emerging; one of a sector of humanity, which has lost the ability to be humane, to be empathetic, to feel love, to show compassion, and to forgive. But, perhaps I am over-generalizing. Would it be better to say that a picture is emerging of a sector of humanity, of a society that is full of anger, cruelty and hate, and with an attitude of, “I don’t give a damn as long as it doesn’t affect my life”; an attitude of complacency and of living in a “bubble” mentality? Still over-generalizing? Too harsh? Unsubstantiated? Unfounded? A tad too critical and self-righteous? Allow me then, to let you be the judge.

Upon hearing that Amy Winehouse had died, I went to Youtube to revisit her marvelous voice and talent that had not been given a chance to reach its full potential. Death has an insidious tendency to cut short life, and Amy’s was indeed, taken from her much too soon. The world already knew of Amy’s demons and the battle she fought to exorcise them. That took courage to do, especially when she was faced with the knowledge that the eyes of the media were watching, and waiting for her to stumble and fall, providing more fodder for their hungry readers. While a lot of comments I read praised Amy for her fight and showed compassion, many more degraded and ridiculed her, in a torrent of senseless and venomous hate.

“It was her own fault she died early, shouldn't of been a crack head who had needle holes in her toes!, if you saw a heroin addict outside a shop with a good voice and died of an overdose the next week, would you say she died too early, or would you say it’s her own fault? Think about that for a second”.

“She was a Drug addict, she’s not a victim. You guys are f***ing idiots if you think she’s some poor girl. Why don’t you look up the videos of her smoking crack before you support someone who endorses a lifestyle like that”.

“ADDICTS = BIG STINKING CRAPS !!! ADDICTS = BIG STINKING CRAPS !!!

“Let’s face it all she was  ... was a smack head and a p**s head she had her chances to get clean and she didn’t, so I have no sympathy”!

“I'm actually very ok with her perishing, I mean one more drug addict off the streets it's not a bad thing, I bet most people pass thru junkies and/or hobos and speak very bad things about them so I don't know what is so different from her (besides she sings woopdi doo!)”

And the icing on the cake….

“Not enough money in the world for her sick lust for meth. She shoulda just ended it by drinking windshield wiper. Then maybe the world would be spared by her screeching that she calls singing. Coincidentally, she was probably singing on screech. LULZ”!

So, now let us proceed to the current famine crisis in the Horn of Africa, particularly, Somalia. Just speaking the word Somalia, for some, leaves a bitter after-taste in the mouth, because for Americans, emotions run deep and memories are long over events that occurred in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993. I can understand this, for what took place that day touched the world with the same feelings of outrage and horror. But, you cannot blame a whole nation for the actions of a few.

The people of Somalia are poor, and have been trying to survive in a country plagued by years of conflict. They are farmers and herdsmen for the most part, struggling to make a living, and a way to feed their families on a land that is as unyielding and relentlessly brutal as the conflict that surrounds them. Thousands flee to refugee camps, sometimes facing conditions not much better than from the ones they escaped from, and often leaving behind their children, who have been taken by rebels to train as soldiers in their army. Now, they are in the grip of the worst famine in nearly twenty years, and we see images of children with huge eyes and skeletal little bodies; their mothers weeping and praying for someone to save the life of their child. Aid has been slow to reach them because of the conflict, and what aid has been sent, falls far short of what is needed to effectively counter the hunger crisis.

I have read many articles pertaining to the famine, and comments left by some, have been particularly cruel and ugly.

“Oh well not my problem....... I don’t live in Africa”.

“When I get the urge to contribute, I think of how much these people hate people like me and the urge goes away”.

“Not only do I not care, but I am pleading for people to ignore their calls for help. Yes, someone is still bitter over the Black Hawk Down thing”.

“Let nature run its course.....stop sending food, financial aid (money pit), send birth control”!!!!

“I actually like watching people suffer”.

And the winner is….

“F*** THEM LET STARVE!!! Or better yet let the n****r rapists and basketball players and all the other n*****s with money feed them”.

Now, enter Michael Jackson, who was and still is, relentlessly pursued by a media determined to pry into every detail of his life, to dissect his every word and action, to publically put him on display as a “freak” and “weirdo”, to twist and manipulate every grain of truth, to portray him as a monster, pedophile, and drug addict, all for a juicy headline and a fat paycheck at the end of the week.

For most of his talented and brilliant life, Michael Jackson has been the target of hate, jealousy, prejudice, and ridicule, and even death has not saved his name and legacy from this continuous assault. The fire started long ago by tabloid reporters looking to gain a name for themselves in a business that had once been founded on integrity and truth, and continually fanned by die-hard supporters of sensationalistic headlines, is still being stoked by pens that should have run out of ink long ago.

“What happened? Why is this molester still on YouTube? Huh”!

“Yay... The KING OF THE PEDOPHILES is dead. Little boys around the world, rejoice.. your p***s is now safe”!!!

“It’s funny how people cry over a f****d up guy that was trying to look like a girl and raped little kids”.

“It’s incredible to forget how absolutely normal Michael Jackson looked back in the 70’s and 80’s, attractive even, before turning into the sideshow freak that he became”.

“I wonder how much his nose went for on EBay after his death..... It was still in decent shape, only a couple years old”.

And the pièce de résistance…..

“I was really disappointed last Saturday. I was rafting with some friends and missed Michael's two year anniversary of his death. I just wanted to stop by and say happy anniversary Mike. I hope you are rotting in hell you filthy, drug addicted, and child molesting freak. I hope your final moments were painful as your body was overtaken by the overdose. I hope you choked on your own vomit and felt your insides bloating up. You did it to yourself you fag. No one killed you except you. Trash pedophile”.

Ah, so eloquently penned.

And, lastly, we arrive at the Libyan woman, who burst into a Tripoli hotel where international journalists were based, claiming she had been gang-raped and beaten by Gadhafi’s forces. She has now been granted asylum in the United States.

Again, emotions and memories run deep in the hearts of many, as they remember the events that took place 11 years ago, on 9/11/2000. The act of terror played out on American soil, hit the heart and soul of this country, because no one dreamed, or thought that something like this could ever occur here. Trust turned to suspicion, courage turned to fear, children were educated about national security, and minds and hearts were redefined in the days and weeks that followed.

But again, you can’t blame an entire nation, or religion, on the acts of those who choose terrorism as a means to an end. They are not to blame for someone else’s agenda.

“Hilary Clinton needs to be slapped and removed from office for letting another freeloader into our country to live off our system”.

“Just what we need another lying asylum seeker from a terrorist country that the American taxpayers will be taking care of for years to come along with all her relatives that will now be given Visas and allowed to immigrate here”.

“Send her back to where the hell she came from. How long will it be before she starts making demands on our government. The last thing we need in this country is more Muslim's. Send her to France. Enough Muslims in our country”.

“While I feel for this woman, once again we will make this woman a celebrity, rich, while people, who have lived and struggled all their lives, will have to listen to her story for the next 6 months. I'm sorry, but send her a** back and save taxpayers a lot of money. Who knows, probably lying anyway. Whatever happened to the wino with the great voice? Probably back on crack, spending the money he made off his 15 minutes of fame”.

“Great. Another terror cell is now set up in the U.S. Why doesn't one of the freaking Muslim countries offer her asylum? She'll be on welfare and at the same time plotting death to the American people”.

And on a scale of 1 to 10, this comment received a zero...

“It would be interesting to find out how many family members she’s got. Probably hundreds. In a way I don’t have a problem with Muslim women seeking asylum. I much prefer that to the tidal wave of young Muslim men invading Europe. Illiterate, criminal scum, with no other reason to migrate than to make Europe’s white people suffer”.

The comments above are just a small proportion of what is really out there, and if you take notice, you will see commenter’s falling into definite patterns and groups.

The hit and run commenter’s are people who sign up on different sites, proceed to run someone over with their particular brand of unsavory words, and then flee the scene without checking for a pulse. They specifically troll the internet to see where they can do the most damage. You see this quite often on social websites such as facebook, You Tube, Twitter, and Topix.

Then, there are commenter’s who enter the room fully-armed, fire at point-blank range, sit back smugly and with a misguided sense of satisfaction, and read the effect their vitriolic and often pointless attack has had on another person. They then engage in verbal warfare with anyone who chooses to fight back, becoming increasingly more hateful with their comments, until they either get bored and move on to their next victim, or are blocked and reported. But, blocking and reporting is little deterrence when one can easily set up another anonymous profile.

And, let’s not forget the comments left to news articles. I will admit that a lot of commenter’s in this arena have constructive and intelligent comments to make. But, things will get heated when discussing sensitive issues, such as politics and religion. It is when you see strong opinions clash with other strong opinions that the sparks will fly and tempers will be lost, and eventually there ensues a melee of mud-slinging. In the quickly disintegrating atmosphere, certain personality types are easily recognized, while others remain hidden behind their strategically, veiled agendas.

Most news sites have moderators, who read each comment that has been submitted before giving the approval for it to be published. If the comments above, and others that I have read made the final cut, I would hate to read the ones that weren’t given approval. I know we have the 1^st Amendment in this country, which entitles all people to freedom of speech, but at best, it appears that it is being used as a screen to hide behind while dumping the muck from the bottom of the barrel. Why do people do this? What is their motivation? What are their individual agendas, because what people are bringing to the virtual table, appears to be multi-faceted.

Far from being an expert on this, my guess is as good as the next person’s, but, three distinct groups of commenter’s are emerging. You have, to all intents and purposes, the stereotypical and mean-spirited bully; the hit and run commenter whose purpose is to elevate him or herself socially, and to gain a sense of superiority. The fully-armed commenter; the one who likes to linger and watch their victims squirm with their continuous, verbal assault, seem to have no other purpose than to spread their hate far and wide. Perhaps, this is because hate is all they are capable of feeling. The last group is hard to define, but it seems to be comprised of an eclectic assortment of racists, bigots, the amateurish, armchair, political analysts, the quasi-religious, the self-opinionated, the self-righteous, and the apathetic. Quite the melting pot, really.

It’s through comments that we get a sense of the disturbing nature of some people’s minds and lives. Bitterness, anger, apathy and hate come to the forefront, and one has to wonder what has happened to these people. What has occurred in their lives to make them feel so bitter, angry, apathetic and hateful? Are they relating to these stories from personal experience? Do they see themselves mirrored in the accusations they hurl at others? Are they victims or perpetrators themselves, trying to shift the focus from themselves on to others?

We can only speculate, at best, what the motives and reasons behind a comment are, but one thing that can’t be argued is that no matter what the topic or subject is, in the virtual world, everyone is vulnerable. And the terrifying thing is that people can hide behind their anonymity on the internet. No one knows who you are. The person who leaves you one of these comments could be your best friend, next-door neighbor, work colleague, or a member of your own family. Kind of scary isn’t it?

© Valmai Owens, 2011. All Rights Reserved.
No reproduction without permission from author.

What's Wrong with This World

I recently came across an intriguing documentary that is now showing in various parts of the United States called,  I AM.  It was directed by Tom Shadyac, a Hollywood director whose previous work includes some very successful comedy blockbuster films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor and Bruce Almighty.

In this film however, he sets out to explore the answers to two very important questions: What’s wrong with our world, and what can we do about it? I believe the answers to those questions can be found by looking at the way Michael Jackson was treated during his lifetime.

He was one of the most successful and influential recording artists of all time with estimates of 750 million records sold worldwide.  His achievements are too many to name, but the records he holds in the Guinness Book of World Records give a small glimpse into the success he achieved:

Guinness Book of World Records

• Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the biggest selling album of all time, with over 100 million copies sold worldwide.
• A record 504,000 people saw Michael perform for seven nights at Wembley Stadium in London in 1988, achieving the distinction of most successful concert series. 
• Michael won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, more than any other artist in one year.
• Michael secured the largest recording contract ever, a reported $890 million with Sony, with prospective earnings of $1 billion.
• He achieved the highest-ever viewing audience during a Super Bowl performance; 133.4 million viewers watched the NBC transmission of Super Bowl XXVII on January 31, 1993. According to this NY Times article, “Jackson produced a stunning first: raising NBC’s halftime rating higher than the Super Bowl action before it.”
• Pepsi Cola made Michael Jackson the highest paid commercial spokesman by paying him $12 million to do four television commercials.
• Michael’s Jacksons Bad tour brought in record-breaking gross revenue of over $124 million during September 1987-December 1988.

In addition, Michael released thirteen number one singles, more than any other male artist and he was the first black artist to have a video aired on MTV.

Source: World Amazing Records

He obviously had an amazing ability to achieve extraordinary success which very few people are able to accomplish. Whenever someone is able to achieve that level of success people take note, and the ones who want to ride their coattails aren’t far behind.

Although his accomplishments are amazing, what they did is made some people view him as a product instead of a human being, allowing their hearts to close off to him, creating a lack of empathy that permitted them to feel justified in lying, criticizing, condemning and using him for their own monetary gain.

“I am bewildered at the length to which people will go to portray me so negatively.” -Michael Jackson

His extraordinary success also caused him to become the target of extortion attempts. In an interview with Deborah Kunesh, creator of Reflections On The Dance, David Nordhal, Michael’s personal painter and friend of 20 years said, “Michael would get between 50 and 60 extortion attempts per year. Most of them were paternity. Women claiming that Michael was the father of their child and a whole bunch of other ones were over music. Somebody had written a song or something and they claimed that Michael had stolen their music or their words. All of those things got thrown out of court because once they got to court they couldn’t back it up.” The worst of the extortion attempts were the ones who used his love of children against him to accuse him of horrific acts.   

“The more I spoke with him about the alleged molestation charges, the more firm I became in my belief that they were part of a universe of money-making opportunities created by charlatans.” -Thomas Mesereau

In the May issue of the MJTP magazine, Dot to Dot: Keeping Michael’s Legacy Alive, Valmai Owens, Editor-In-Chief, interviews Thomas Mesereau about the upcoming trial of Conrad Murray for the death of Michael Jackson. Mr. Mesereau is the trial lawyer who successfully defended Michael as his lead counsel in the 2005 child molestation trial.  

When asked what he would consider his greatest achievement in his career to date, Mesereau said, “Well, first of all you have to understand that every life is valuable. I don’t value one life as more important than another life so whether the case is high profile or low profile, a life is a life. So when I save a life, it’s just as important to me whether the person is rich or poor or known or unknown, valued or not.” 

That comment made me realize why he was brought into Michael’s life to defend him, because he was able to see him as a human being. Michael Jackson wasn’t a product that was going to make Tom money; he was a father, a son, a brother and a man who just happened to need Mr. Mesereau’s help in that moment. I can’t help but wish the same insight would have been present in the professionals caring for him during the final weeks of his life.

“I’ve followed too many celebrity cases... Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole Smith, and you find these physicians become enablers.They’re afraid to deny the celebrity what they want for fear that they’ll be out of the fold and it’s something that I think law enforcement has to take very seriously.” – Thomas Mesereau

Enabling is a subject I have become intimately familiar with. On June 26th, while I was in California for the one-year anniversary of Michael’s death, I found out my 19-year-old son had developed a problem with addiction. I was devastated. I never, ever thought this would happen.

As a result, I was thrust into a world I never knew existed and boy, did I learn a lot. People from all walks of life, all cultures and all educational types of backgrounds become addicted to all types of substances.
I was introduced to the concept of enabling while he was in treatment. Enabling is defined as “to make possible or easy.” In the case of someone who has an unhealthy dependency, if you’re making it possible or easy for them to remain dependent on that substance, then you are taking away their power and ability to heal. 

My son’s counselor helped me understand the power an enabler holds and the devastation they can cause when he started to identify enabling actions. Realizing I had done some of them I said, “I do those things out of love.” His reply? “You’re loving him to death.” In that instant I got it. I stopped being an enabler that day thus giving my son back his power to heal, which he did.

If Michael Jackson had a problem with addiction or a dependency of any kind, and since I didn't know him personally I am in no position to know or say, then what he needed in that moment of his life was to be treated responsibly and given back his power to heal. If he developed a dependency on medication in order to sleep and Murray continued to allegedly provide and administer it to him under those circumstances, especially in the reckless way he did, then he was an enabler whose actions resulted in disastrous consequences and he should be held accountable. .

In response to Valmai’s question about his greatest accomplishment, Mesereau went on to say, “My greatest accomplishment has been my ability to blend the practice of law with charitable work.” He does things that are good for the soul. He believes that lawyers should give back to the community and he believes that he can make a difference in the world by doing so. He sees every human being as valuable, no one more special than the other, regardless of what they have accomplished.

I haven’t seen the film I AM yet because it hasn’t come to my hometown, but my response to the question What’s wrong with our world? is that a lack of empathy has created a lack of regard for our fellow human beings. We haven’t come to recognize the importance of making people feel like they matter. A lack of heart has created a lack of compassion. If you’re living with a closed heart it makes you feel justified in tearing others down. It becomes easy to participate in man’s inhumanity to man, lying, criticizing and condemning those who seem different.

A letter Michael wrote to his critics in 1987

The message that is being sent through the lies, the deceit, the criticism, the condemning, the using and the enabling of another, is that you don’t matter. You’re feelings don’t matter; your integrity, your dignity, your reputation, your health, your well-being and your happiness don’t matter.

In response to the question What can we do about it? I believe the solution lies in developing our ability to have empathy for others. The President of the United States, Barack Obama, said, "Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world." If Michael Jackson would have been given more empathy maybe he would still be here with us today.

We have to be conscious of how our actions affect another person, taking care to treat them as a human being that matters. We have to be able to stand in their shoes so we can see what they see, hear what they hear and feel what they feel, which will give us the capacity to act compassionately and responsibly toward them.

We also have to treat ourselves as though we matter by doing things that are good for the soul, making a difference in the life of someone else, giving back to our own communities and maintaining our own sense of dignity by respecting ourselves and others.

We have to put the heart back into humanity so humanity will live with heart. When that happens, I believe we will all begin to understand what Tom Mesereau already knows: that every life is valuable.    

by Linda Higgins

© 2011. All Rights Reserved.
No reproduction without permission from author.

This article appears in the publication Dot to Dot: Keeping Michael’s Legacy Alive,

http://mjtpmagazine.presspublisher.us/
and its content is the property of the authors and the Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait. Articles and exclusive interviews are copyrighted; therefore there should be no republication without permission. You may email edito@michaeljacksontributeportrait.com with any requests for republication. If permission is given, credit must be given to the author, Dot to Dot: Keeping Michael's Legacy Alive and the Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait.