okieinexile
Well-Known Member
By Bobby Neal Winters
The seeds of what we are going to be hearing and reading about in the New Year are planted from the Old, most of the time. This bothers me considering the headlines on New Years Day featured Michael Jackson and Mad Cow Disease. I believe that somewhere in the cosmos there is some connection between these apparently disparate news items, and if there is it is bound to be evil.
Michael Jackson is four years older than I am, and still thinks that having sleepovers with teenyboppers is a grand old time. I am old enough to remember when the Jackson Five had their own cartoon. I may have seen an episode or two, but I don't remember ever habitually watching it or knowing anyone who did, but in thinking back on it, I've got to think, "That can't be healthy." Attention is a powerful drug that can be good or evil, depending upon the patient.
While it is good to give children attention, it is easy for them to get so much of it. A kiss or a hug is on the way to enough, but having your own Saturday morning cartoon is too much. There is a basic difference between the sort of attention that loving parents pay and the sort of attention that one gets as a Rock Icon. Parents, for the most part, will offer a reality check, "Son, that's weird. You're freaking us out," while the public does not. The public will encourage weird behavior until its too late.
I did not pay very much attention to Jackson until I was in graduate school, strangely enough. At that time, I was living in the metropolis of Stillwater, Oklahoma and, for the first time in my life, had occasional access to cable TV. My friend Jack Rau and his wife Angela were living in a house formerly occupied by nuns, because Angela was a Youth Minister for St. Francis Xavier Church there in Stillwater. Jack took pity on many of us TV-starved grad-students and invited us over every-once-in-a-while to watch his. MTV was a large part of that, and Michael Jackson was a large part of MTV.
I was not then, nor have I ever been a Michael Jackson fan, but I remember that the video for Thriller left quite an impression on me. During the '80's, it seemed like everything that Jackson did turned into gold, and he was everywhere, but among all of the glitz there were bits of information that were disturbing. I recall having read that he owned a boa constrictor named "Tinkerbell." While that sort of thing might slip under the radar in other parts of the country, that didn't go unnoticed in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Okies might be backward, we might be hicks, but we don't go around naming snakes, "Tinkerbell." That is just wrong.
Then there was the thing about the single white glove. I did not get that at the time, do not get it now, and am not sure that I want to get it, but we Okies knew it was a bad omen.
The chickens have all come home to roost now, and we read about his arrest for child molestation. This is by no means a funny subject, and whether he is guilty or innocent, there will be lives ruined.
The newspaper story told about charges that Jackson is making about being "manhandled." Maybe I am a cynic, (there are certain people who spewed coffee upon reading that remark and I apologize), but it seems to me in spite of the fact the first gavel of the trial has yet to be sounded, the defense has already began its case: innocent by reason of being manhandled. Those of us older than about thirty, however, have received a certain amount of education with regard to trials of the famous and wealthy. Excessive cynicism in this area is impossible after OJ.
Here I believe that I have a connection with Mad Cow Disease. (You thought I'd forgotten about that, didn't you?) There was a story on New Year's which told us (a) there was only one cow in the US with the disease, (b) meat from that one cow had already been recalled, (c) the meat wasn't distributed to many states, and (d) even if you got some of the meat, it probably wouldn't hurt you. I will really start to worry when they tell us that Mad Cow Disease is good for you.
It is pretty clear that the public relations folks for the beef industry are earning their money this week, just like Michael Jackson's are. For my own part, I am not giving up so much as a single hamburger because—however dangerous Mad Cow Disease is—its danger pales in comparison to getting into your car. On the other hand, I don't appreciate my intelligence being insulted. If they found one cow, there will be others, and the story will dog us this year, just like the Michael Jackson case. I could be wrong, and it wouldn't be the first time.
On a lighter note, the thought occurs to me that, because of his extensive plastic surgery, Michael is beginning to look something like a mad cow. Maybe we will be able to consolidate these stories somehow, but I fear that we are in for it.
The seeds of what we are going to be hearing and reading about in the New Year are planted from the Old, most of the time. This bothers me considering the headlines on New Years Day featured Michael Jackson and Mad Cow Disease. I believe that somewhere in the cosmos there is some connection between these apparently disparate news items, and if there is it is bound to be evil.
Michael Jackson is four years older than I am, and still thinks that having sleepovers with teenyboppers is a grand old time. I am old enough to remember when the Jackson Five had their own cartoon. I may have seen an episode or two, but I don't remember ever habitually watching it or knowing anyone who did, but in thinking back on it, I've got to think, "That can't be healthy." Attention is a powerful drug that can be good or evil, depending upon the patient.
While it is good to give children attention, it is easy for them to get so much of it. A kiss or a hug is on the way to enough, but having your own Saturday morning cartoon is too much. There is a basic difference between the sort of attention that loving parents pay and the sort of attention that one gets as a Rock Icon. Parents, for the most part, will offer a reality check, "Son, that's weird. You're freaking us out," while the public does not. The public will encourage weird behavior until its too late.
I did not pay very much attention to Jackson until I was in graduate school, strangely enough. At that time, I was living in the metropolis of Stillwater, Oklahoma and, for the first time in my life, had occasional access to cable TV. My friend Jack Rau and his wife Angela were living in a house formerly occupied by nuns, because Angela was a Youth Minister for St. Francis Xavier Church there in Stillwater. Jack took pity on many of us TV-starved grad-students and invited us over every-once-in-a-while to watch his. MTV was a large part of that, and Michael Jackson was a large part of MTV.
I was not then, nor have I ever been a Michael Jackson fan, but I remember that the video for Thriller left quite an impression on me. During the '80's, it seemed like everything that Jackson did turned into gold, and he was everywhere, but among all of the glitz there were bits of information that were disturbing. I recall having read that he owned a boa constrictor named "Tinkerbell." While that sort of thing might slip under the radar in other parts of the country, that didn't go unnoticed in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Okies might be backward, we might be hicks, but we don't go around naming snakes, "Tinkerbell." That is just wrong.
Then there was the thing about the single white glove. I did not get that at the time, do not get it now, and am not sure that I want to get it, but we Okies knew it was a bad omen.
The chickens have all come home to roost now, and we read about his arrest for child molestation. This is by no means a funny subject, and whether he is guilty or innocent, there will be lives ruined.
The newspaper story told about charges that Jackson is making about being "manhandled." Maybe I am a cynic, (there are certain people who spewed coffee upon reading that remark and I apologize), but it seems to me in spite of the fact the first gavel of the trial has yet to be sounded, the defense has already began its case: innocent by reason of being manhandled. Those of us older than about thirty, however, have received a certain amount of education with regard to trials of the famous and wealthy. Excessive cynicism in this area is impossible after OJ.
Here I believe that I have a connection with Mad Cow Disease. (You thought I'd forgotten about that, didn't you?) There was a story on New Year's which told us (a) there was only one cow in the US with the disease, (b) meat from that one cow had already been recalled, (c) the meat wasn't distributed to many states, and (d) even if you got some of the meat, it probably wouldn't hurt you. I will really start to worry when they tell us that Mad Cow Disease is good for you.
It is pretty clear that the public relations folks for the beef industry are earning their money this week, just like Michael Jackson's are. For my own part, I am not giving up so much as a single hamburger because—however dangerous Mad Cow Disease is—its danger pales in comparison to getting into your car. On the other hand, I don't appreciate my intelligence being insulted. If they found one cow, there will be others, and the story will dog us this year, just like the Michael Jackson case. I could be wrong, and it wouldn't be the first time.
On a lighter note, the thought occurs to me that, because of his extensive plastic surgery, Michael is beginning to look something like a mad cow. Maybe we will be able to consolidate these stories somehow, but I fear that we are in for it.
