Let's Rip the Dead

Maybe it's me, but in my approximately four and a half decades on this earth, I have never seen people stoop so low!

Don't get me wrong, I found out a long time ago that courtesy, kindness and consideration are literally a thing of the past for most Americans these days, but I have to admit, that I have been blown away by the recent bashing of recently deceased celebrity Michael Jackson and football star Steve 'Air' McNair.

Now, I know that most Americans nowadays only care about themselves and their respective families - and I can't say I blame them much in these terrible times, which have been accentuated by daily murders, rapes and robberies.

However, I am shocked at the cruelty and lack of consideration by many public figures, most notably, sports writer Jay Mariotti and New York congressman Peter King, just to name a few.

To make matters worse, particularly for a nation that still hasn't come to grips with its vast racial diversity, much of the bashing of these former icons, seems to be racially motivated, with absolutely nothing to gain from their respective detractors.

Now, I don't want to get into what kind of men (and I use that term loosely) Mariotti and King are, though I suspect both are pansies that would run at the first sign of 'real trouble,' but I have to say that it takes a special kind of coward to defame and speak ill about someone that is not here to defend themselves any longer, particularly those that have deceased.

Now, I really don't want to bring religion into this article, but if Jay Mariotti and Peter King have not led totally sinless, perfection-filled lives, then they don't need to be pointing out the faults of anyone else, - period.

Unfortunately, both public figures are either too dense to know otherwise, too callous to actually care or were raised by unsympathetic parents that never taught them the lesson that goes, 'If you don't have anything nice to say about a person, then don't say anything at all.'

At any rate, I want to say that I am totally disgusted by the backlash of negativity, mostly from white Americans, surrounding the deaths of both black stars.

In Mariotti's case, let me go on record to say that the man is as hate-filled - and idiotic - as any sports writer that I have ever met and has ticked off just as many white media members as he has blacks with his special repertoire of put-downs and insensitivity.

Just last year, several of Mariotti's Chicago Sun Times colleagues were up in arms over some cheap shots Mariotti delivered against his brethren in one of his columns no less.

Now Mariotti seemed to suggest in a recent column that McNair's legacy is tarnished because of the way he died while also stating McNair's death "should have reminded us to exercise restraint before assuming we know "our heroes" and liberally tossing around Man of the Year tributes."

While I can see where Mariotti is coming from to a certain extent, the man's timing sure seems funny if you ask me. Even more importantly is the fact that Mariotti seems to be hinting at the fact that because McNair may have had an extra-marital relationship going that was the cause for his tragic ending, that all of the good things he did for a untold number of Tennessee and Mississippi residents should suddenly be forgotten.

Well, I say Jay Mariotti is off his rocker! Even if McNair did have a woman on the side (and I'm not saying that's right) all of the good he did in his life and career should not be forgotten nor should any of his good works be diminished.

For someone to try to reduce McNair's on and off-field accomplishments to nothing because of the manner in which he died is nothing short of an atrocity.

However, I have to say that Mariotti's recent column pales in comparison to what foolish, soon-to-be ex-Congressman Peter King said in his foolish online Youtube video.

King ripped Michael Jackson in his online video, calling the greatest entertainer of all-time a "pedophile" and "pervert" that was getting too much attention from the national media while the 'real heroes,' American service men and women, are being ignored.

"Let's knock out the psychobabble," King said in the video which was outside an American Legion Hall on New York's Long Island. "He was a pervert, a child molester; he was a pedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? I just think we're too politically correct."

First of all, King may have opened himself up to a major defamation lawsuit from the Jackson family for boldly stating that Jackson was a 'pedophile and pervert' though he was never found guilty of any charges leveled against him.

An attorney for Jermaine Jackson, Michael's older brother, called King's comments "highly inflammatory" and defamatory.

"Michael Jackson was found not guilty and to state with such vehement affirmation that he was something that he was not is a reflection of the congressman's lack of respect for the rule of law, which ironically he was elected to uphold," attorney Vicki Roberts said.

For a public official to come out with such ludicrous statements following the death of a world-wide icon tells me two things. First and foremost, Peter King is an idiot that does not - and almost certainly will not - get re-elected and secondly, that King has far too much time on his hands despite the multitude of domestic issues facing his constituents and millions of Americans nation-wide.

Lest anyone forget, this country is trying to rebound from a nearly crippling economic, housing and health insurance collapse that has left millions either destitute or homeless and in many cases, both.

If Kings has nothing better to worry about than Michael Jackson, I feel mortified for his Long Island, new York constituents.

To make a long story short, what this nation needs is more gentleness, more fairness for everyone no matter what race and certainly more unification.

Unfortunately, at the rate and direction this country is heading in, it won't be long before bashing the dead and spurring more divisiveness are a commonplace event that throws this country back into the racial war that nearly divided this country in two.