Posted by
VBushmills on Tuesday, July 07, 2009 7:59:40 AM
The big to-do in Los Angeles' Staple Center today should remind the GOP, and all the anti-Sarah Palin conservative-poseurs out there about one of the real cultural wars within this broader war we call Left vs Right.
It is class, and the Jackson memorial today should not only remind us who the real purveyors of class consciousness are, but all the opportunities we are letting pass by not hanging that issue over the clothesline and beating it like a dirty rug.
Michael Jackson is way after my time. Even the new Elvis was after my time. I fact, I had nearly outgrown Elvis by the time he left the Army and started making movies, of which I only saw one.
Most of us associate a part of our lives with the music that passed through it, and Michael Jackson was a major contributor to a lot of people's musical lives. The freaky, weird Jackson came later, as his career began to wind down, and he began to enjoy (some say, a little too much) the fruits of what his talent had earned.
In short, Michael had a base of real dedicated fans, just like Elvis did. So, at his funeral/memorial service it would only seem natural that they'd want to pay their last respects.
Unh-uh. That was to be reserved for 1000 luminaries, dignitaries, beautiful people, (maybe Elton John will pen a song, Maya Angelou a poem, Charlie Harper a jingle) and politicians. You know, a ticket to die for. Why, 1000 seats won't even hold the California legislature, if you include their families, and this event is an absolute must. A must, I repeat.
Needless to say, somewhere the Jackson fans griped and groaned, so the powers that be upped the passes at Staples to 9000, but I'll bet as sure as Bill Clinton gave all those free air tickets out of Albania to prostitution kingpins in the '90s, few "real" fans will get many of those seats either.
Not that it matters. I just want it on record, to all you poor and down-trodden...this is what you voted for; a royal class, made up of celebs, media moguls, and politicians, none of whom would dirty their hands to be in the same room with you. That's why God invented rope lines. Their idea of life you on one side and them on the other, and to them, most of politics is about keeping you (us) over there on that side of the rope line.
Had a conservative been in the White House, running Congress, running Sacramento, maybe even the LA council, Michael Jackson would have been laid to rest in a quiet spot attended only by family and friends, while all over America, millions of Michael Jackson fans would have held their own spontaneous memorial services, 50 here, 250 there, in sandlots and parking lots... true send offs for a true talent.
Now you know where you stand.
Vassar Bushmills