Inner Michael

 We are what we imagine.

If I believe I am not worthy, all good things will bypass me.

If I don’t give the world my gift, the world shall never have it.

If my life mission is not completed I cheat those to whom my life is linked-   seen, unseen, known and unknown.

If I don’t make a difference or see that I can make a difference, who will?

If I forget who I am, will you promise to remind me?

If I forget what I am worth (and what you are worth) will you remind me? And if I lose my way or start moving backwards, will you turn me around?

Will you be there?

“Hold Me
Like The River Jordan
And I Will Then Say To Thee
You Are My Friend

Carry Me
Like You Are My Brother
Love Me Like A Mother
Will You Be There?

Weary
Tell Me Will You Hold Me
When Wrong, Will You Scold Me
When Lost Will You Find Me?”           ~Michael Jackson

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When I look around I fear we are slinding backwards. But at the same time I see opportunity:

In my home state of Wisconsin the governor tried to destroy collective bargaining, the privilege that this state was founded on and that Wisconsin’s prominent LaFollette family founght so hard for.

I see our governor signing bills that restrict their rights and set women back a hundred years. (He just made it harder for women to litigate for equal pay and a Wisconsin “good ole boy” politician just said men should make more money than women because they need more money to support families. What century is he living in? The reality is that 35 million women are head of households and black women are mostly supporting black families. And what exactly is democratic about signing bills into law in the middle of the night or saving up fifty bills and signing them all at once to hide the most civil rights-eroding in the middle of the pile? If you’re not doing something wrong, there is no need to hide it.

Wisconsin occupied the capitol and we fought back. We gathered enough signatures and the recall moves forward. Treachery will not be rewarded in this state.

The Trayvon Martin case illustrates that racial profiling (racism) is still alive and well in this country and the backlash against Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson tells me that people still don’t get it. The freedom fighters are not hsitorical figures; they are also much needed modern day watchdogs who make sure that the civil rights of all are respected and enforced. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not new to the struggle for civil rights. Both of these men are freedom fighters who stood with Michael in some really dark times.

The New Black Panther Party is a scourge on the name of the original Black Panter Party and are not considered legitimate nor the a new version of the first one that fought for civil rights and still wears a dark legacy because the truth about it has been censored by corrupted power (white-wash) and because the media is eager to sensationalize and doesn’t mind cutting and pasting false information. we know that Fox News won a lawsuit brought against them for falsifying the news. The court decided that the First Amendment trumped the public’s right to be told the truth. Essentially, that decision was a rubber stamp for Fox News to replace the news with propaganda. In fact, it gave license to all media to say whatever they want and it doesn’t have to be the truth. Ouch.

NVDA is the key. Non violent direct action has worked in the past. It will work in the future. More about that later.

Ashley Judd recently went on record about lookism and how misogyny abuses women by scorning their looks, weight, body image, sexuality, and perpetuates the objectification of women. She was then targeted by commentary and media as a whiner and a hypocitical celebrity. Her “puffy cheeks” were immediately “evidence” of plastic surgery when she clearly explained that she had to take steroids for a stubborn sinus infection (that can lead to brain damage when it’s aggressive and resistive to antibiotics.) The media and comments left on ariticles sadly perpetuate the idea that celebrity’s private lives are fodder for public scrutiny and that celebs should “get over themselves” and be willing to give up their rights to human dignity. Comments indicated that the public doesn’t believe her denial of plastic surgery and they don’t buy her story about illness and medical treatment for a serious medical condition. (Where have we heard this story before?)

Some of the comments were really mean spirited and called her “fat” and “old.” If you don’t believe that the objectification of women is a problem, I invite you to check out “Miss Representation” and while you’re there “Like” them on Facebook. Ashely Judd was bullied with words and this bullying is the very reason for the “Words and Violence” curriculum at Voices Education Project. Does this story sound familiar? And while it may not be about Michael Jackson specifically, it is about the same things and the same kind of bullying that he suffered. So I hope you are not being silent about it.

Bullying has no place in a civilized society. celebrities are human beings. Treating people as less than human for reasons of skin color or gender or social status is not OK. Make your voice heard.

Recently Mike Wallace who was considered a hard hitting journalist passed away. While Wallace was hard hitting, he was mostly fair and ethical. It’s not that he made no mistakes in his career, but he represents an era of journalism (ala Walter Cronkite) when ethics were paramount and fact checking stories was a given. When accusations were made, they were sourced. When statements were advanced, they were vetted. Information was checked and rechecked for accuracy. Wallace represents the media before its infection by tabloid journalism gone mainstream. Michael Jackson fans had an opportunity, with his death, to go to media websites and make a statement about what a loss Wallace was and how much that brand of journalism has been contaminated and sullied by modern medialoid masquerading as real journalism.

The media needs to change and you can be a part of creating that change by demanding it. Make no mistake– think tanks, sponsors, corporations and the media itself watches closely the direction of the winds of social media and public sentiment. Imagine if all the Michael Jackson fans in the world took on human dignity and civility in the world as a personal mission… imagine what would happen to Michael Jackson’s legacy and the legacy of his fans!

I have been commenting at all the major media sites about how I want to see integirty restored to journalism. You can too- make your voice heard.

The Southern Poverty Law Center quarterly report illustrates that there are more than a thousand hate groups in the United States. The incidence of hate groups has increased exponentially since Barack Obama was elected president. Does that tell you the same thing it tells me? It reinforces my theory that what happened to Michael Jackson was a result of racism– overt, covert or otherwise. Michael Jackson was a target for some of the most sorry and hateful behavior this world has ever seen. We can all be racist, sexist, lookist in subtle ways that we aren’t even aware of. Seeing someone in a hoodie in the dark triggers things inside that we don’t even want to acknowledge lives in ourselves. I remember seeing some youth wearing hoodies out back around our dumpster and immediately thinking they were up to no good. Does that make me racist? I’m not sure because a closer look revealed they were Africa American. Did that make my suspicions increase? I don’t know and I don’t want to remember because if it did, that means I am racist. Intentional or not, that is what it means.

So I ask you who wants to admit that– even to themselves, never mind saying it out loud. But it is a conversation this country needs to have. So I mourn the loss of Trayvon Martin and find the whole episode an abomination but I also recognize that Trayvon Martin may have in some unknown or unseen way, fulfilled his life mission. His death did open a wound. But it was a wound that was festering under the surface hiding an infection that perhaps needed to be lanced to heal. His death has sparked a dialogue that needed to happen. If there is any truth to the theory that we come into the world with a purpose that our soul knows and fulfills that purpose, then Trayvon Martin is a hero. While I identify with a grieving mother (and family) who lost her son, I will see Trayvon as the Rosa Parks of the twenty first century. And I am not without compassion for the Zimmermans. A single decision has taken a life and ruined others. What motivated that decision I cannot know now and may not learn until the court case is televised. I don’t want to rush to judgement or proclaim guilt on accusation alone for I know how destructive that is. I want to have compassion for the circumstances and mindset that made Neighborhood Watch a necessity.

I want to empathize with a black culture that for decades now has had to deal with having laws that give lip service only to the idea of equal treatment, with perpetual sterotypes and prejudice, with skin color concerns and differentiations, with having to be or appear subservient as a matter of survival, for having to worry about “driving while black” each and every time they get into a car, for police who have mistreated and distorted justice since the civil war, for being overlooked as human in situations that non-blacks can’t even imagine, and for being angry about all of that. While I can never know those things for myself because I haven’t lived them, I suffer for the inhumanity that made them possible while at the same time feeling compassion for that humanity in its ignorance and wounds.

We can do better. I know we can. Michael knew it. We all know it– in our bones. What “if?” What if we made it our business?

So what if we decided to do both– reveal the darkness while shining the light? I’ll leave you with that– for now. And I’ll leave the “if” open should you want to come and visit and give me the thoughts you come up with. And the light on.