…. but screw it.  I’m just too annoyed by the whole situation.

I can not wait for the production of Michael Jackson’s death to be over.  When I heard he died, I knew there would be a bit of a fuss- but I had NO IDEA that it would reach such epic and ridiculous proportions.   This seriously blows my mind.

Let’s go over a few facts.  First being that we’re ALL going to die.  You, me, my son, your parents, my parents, everyone you and I both know and care about and have ever met in our lives are ALL GOING TO DIE.  This is a fact.  Let’s all deal with it.  It’s a natural part of life.  Is it tragic?  Well, that depends on how a person dies, and the impact it has on the people around them.  If MJ had died 15 years ago before he became a bad carnie act, then MAYBE I can understand fans freaking out.  But even then, not this kind of swelling madness.  And, not to sound callous but to put it in perspective- can you picture that guy old?  Really?  Picture his face in your mind… then add 25 years.  25 years of age and plastic surgery and sagging and wrinkles to what was already distorted and disturbing.  25 years of additional mental and psychological decline to be displayed shamelessly for the public.  Some people should go out with a bang before the harshness of time gets a hold of them and they pathetically fizzle out.  Would Marylin Monroe have been such an icon if she was still alive today?  Of course not.  Or at least not to the magnitude that she is still to this day.  So is MJ’s death a tragedy?  No.  Was his life a tragedy?  A childhood filled with pressures and abuse; getting too much status and power at too young of an age to know how to handle it, and declining into an insane world where he didn’t have rules, limits, or reality of any kind; one public debacle after another from his own personal appearance to child molestation charges to weird reclusiveness…. and on and on.  Yes, his life was a tragedy- and I don’t think it’s a shame that it’s over.  You could’t pay me enough money to have lived in that guy’s head for 10 minutes.

Secondly, how his funeral has been handled is disgusting to the fullest degree.  There have been varied accounts as to just how much dealing with the funeral is costing the state of California (who is BANKRUPT, by the way)- but it’s between 2 and 4 MILLION dollars.  Let me repeat that in case someone out there didn’t quite catch that- between 2-4 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!! I live in California, just south of Los Angeles.  Teachers are getting laid off in dizzing numbers.  Public education is falling apart because of lack of funding.  Benefits and social programs are getting hacked to pieces because THERE IS NO MONEY!!!  People were getting I.O.U. statements from the state for tax refunds.  Seriously… there’s no fucking money.  And the Jackson’s decide to have a public extravaganza funeral, and the city has to pay to take care of it.  Sectioning off an entire part of Los Angeles, traffic control, monumental police and security, public workers out the ass to try to keep the craziness under control, etc.  Personally, I’d like for that 2-4 million dollars to go into the health clinics that are being shut down, or to be able to keep a few teachers from being laid off or to reinstate the shut down after school programs- or hell!  How about the public schools being able to have art and gym classes again!!  Because those were some of the first things to go when the state started going downhill.  These are all things that NEED millions of dollars… the celebration of Moonwalking DOES NOT.

Yes, he was a great performer.  A couple days after he died, Sully wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  So we went on youtube and I showed him MJ videos of performances that were just fantastic.  But what blows my mind is that he was just a performer. He didn’t save millions of people, or cure cancer, or really “heal the world”.  He gave to charities and was said to be a kind person…  but when you get down to it- he was just a performer.  There have been at least a dozen suicides over his death.  There were photos in the news of people who had spent every penny they had to fly from England to LA just to be near the funeral, and had no money for food or shelter once they got here.  All for a man who didn’t even know these people existed.  They had no personal relationship with him.  They had never even spoken to him.  The dedication that people in our society have towards pop stars and celebrities is demented and shameful.  To KILL YOURSELF because a pop star dies (and not an active pop star, mind you… but one who really hasn’t participated in society except to be the butt of plastic surgery jokes) is a blinding example of just how backwards our society has become.  And it makes my stomach hurt.

When the people in my life that I love and have an actual relationship with die, I will grieve and miss them.  But when a celebrity that I have never even seen in person dies- not only does it not effect me, but I get really annoyed that I’ll have to pay for their memorial service with my tax dollars (ESPECIALLY when my funeral will consist of a cremation and my ashes being stored in a ziplock bag because there’s no way my family could afford any more).

Thanks goes out to the Jacksons’ for keeping the psychotic madness alive.

Vomit.