Comments on: yes, the rumor is true: michael jackson died last week

By: jackie sheeler

jackie sheeler — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:57:05 +0000

@jamie — i count military suicides like the one you describe as murder, because they were murdered just a surely as someone who caught a bullet through the head

@ethan — i didn’t suggest we should mourn every passing death in this way, i suggested we should mourn every murder committed in the course of war in this way. it’s hundreds, not millions. if we can’t get our minds around the body count, then we need to stop making it larger. and i don’t think that even so the deaths would become meaningless: look what the images of neda, murdered for protesting the election fraud in iran, have created around the world. true, not everyone is young and beautiful and killed in the middle of a busy street. nevertheless, we must do what we can to remember and so, to change.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:49:02 +0000

“We should carry on like this over every single person killed in our senseless wars. every soldier, sailor, child, journalist, housewife, laborer, cook. every single one”

Nice thought, but no, we really shouldn’t. We adapt. If we mourned every passing than death would become meaningless to us, and we wouldn’t even mourn the passing of just one person, talented, soldier, or not.

By: jamie

jamie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:48:41 +0000

So what do you say about one of those soldiers on that list, coming back to Kuwait unharmed and then put a bullet through his chest? Yeah we were there, we heard the call, I have friends that saw the suicide.. You never know what is going through a persons mind to commit such an act.. We all need to wake up and see that our soldiers are NOT ALRIGHT from the war. We need to pay attention more. Celebrities get all the good treatments… why not soldiers…

By: Cyndi

Cyndi — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:17:16 +0000

From the opening line, to the list of dead soldiers, BRAVO. You made a bold statement that needed stating. In that classic Jackie Sheeler style!!! SUPERB blog.

By: George

George — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:12:23 +0000

Love your values, Jaxx: “nobody went moonwalking in front of the fucking apollo theater for any of them.”

Did you notice that two of the dead servicemen you list were in their 40′s, not much older than MJ? They were probably reservists called away from their jobs and families to do hard time in combat and then lose their lives. But how much more of a thriller it is to kick off with grams of drugs in your body and needle tracks all over your arms.

Carey, it is as bad as or worse than Jackie makes it seem.

By: Carey

Carey — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:30:26 +0000

It’s not at all limited to Amercans. Complacency and apathy are human issues. So too is a complete inability to gauge proportion. We don’t have a lock on misplaced priorities, or fatness, or celebrity worship.

It’s also not as bad as you’re making it seem. The national orgy of handwringing and celebrity mourning is mostly a media phenomenon. I would agree that there are probably more people thinking today about Michael Jackson than are thinking about the ten people you named above but that’s to be expected. It is not politically correct to say so, but all lives aren’t equal. The very fact that one can be famous or infamous, shows that it’s possible for one human being to have a disproportionate impact on the lives of others. And when those people die the response is disproportionate.