Michael Jackson’s memorial service

By Jennifer J. Foster

I just want to take a couple of minutes and reflect on the memorial service for Michael Jackson that took place earlier today.

I watched the entire thing. (Well, almost the entire thing. There was that bathroom break in the middle of Sheila Jackson Lee’s self-serving, at-times-unintelligible blabber.)

As I said on Twitter this afternoon, if you were watching at the end and your heart didn’t absolutely break for Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter as she choked her way through a tearful tribute to her dad, then you must not have a heart at all. Michael Jackson the entertainer was quirky, eccentric and even bizzare. But Michael Jackson the man was a father, and his little girl is shattered without her daddy.

There were things about the service that I would have liked to have seen done differently. Lee is the foremost example. Everyone who performed or spoke either had a personal relationship with Michael Jackson or was speaking from the perspective of an area that Jackson impacted (i.e., Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson talking about his philanthropic work). But Lee, she was just there to make an appearance on behalf of the Congress. Who cares.

But overall, I found it to be a fitting memorial for a man who made such an incredible impact on the world for so many years.

I know there is a growing number of people out there who are annoyed, and even angry, about the amount of coverage that Jackson’s death has received. Let me speak to that for a minute.

I can understand the point people are trying to make about all this attention given to Jackson when the sacrifices of so many people who do such important work—teachers, policemen, firefighters, soldiers—everyday are basically ignored. They’re right: We should appreciate those people more than we do. We should give them their due.

But folks, this is America. We haven’t just been taken by celebrities in the past two weeks. It’s part and parcel of our culture that we spend so much time and energy keeping up with the celebs. I don’t understand it, and I wish it was different, but that’s just the way it is.

Yes, the coverage has been extensive—even smothering, some might say. But Michael Jackson wasn’t just another celebrity. That’s just reality.

As for those who would bring up his legal troubles as a reason to tamp down the attention to his death and his legacy, Jackson was acquitted of criminal wrongdoing. He was acquitted. But it is true that he also paid two civil judgments related to similar charges. So his legal legacy is a mixed bag.

But folks who try to make the point that Jackson’s life shouldn’t be celebrated because deserving everyday heroes go without recognition only make themselves look foolish by minimizing Jackson’s impact on our world. You need look no further than U.S. Rep. Peter King’s meanspirited and misguided comments this weekend for proof.

Jackson’s legal and personal troubles, whatever they were, are separate from the impact that he had on music, on culture, on giving and on the world. That is just reality. He broke down barriers of race, color and creed. He spanned gaps of generations and geography. He drew fans among rich and poor alike and of every political stripe. His music reached billions all over the globe. He influenced generations of artists and forever changed pop music.

I thought about this near the end of the service, as the singers and family gathered on stage for one last rendition of “We are the World.“ I watched the service on CNN, and they spliced together video feed from other locations all over the place: Los Angeles. Atlanta. Gary, Ind. Times Square.

Berlin.

Namibia.

While the song was being sung, I thought about how I was sharing in that moment with untold millions around the world.

Think about that for a minute: Millions of people all over the world were doing just what I was doing at that moment.

That is an amazing thing.

And in that moment, I realized that this service wasn’t just about Michael Jackson. Yes, it was about the man and his impact on music and culture and his legacy. But it wasn’t just about that. It was also about how the man became a vehicle, over four decades of creativity and work and performance, by which people connected with each other.

Michael Jackson the man was a flawed and tragic individual, talented beyond imagination but haunted by demons he couldn’t defeat.

Michael Jackson the cultural icon was transcendent.

That is what made his death such a big deal. That is why his memorial service was covered by TV stations all over the world. That is why people watched, whether from homes or theaters or arenas or malls or in groups or in solitude.

That is why they cared.

I was a casual Michael Jackson fan. I grew up in the ‘80s; I’m a child of the MTV generation. Thriller, the Moonwalk, Billie Jean and all the rest were intertwined with my childhood, much in the way that ABC and other Jackson 5 standards were for kids of the late ‘60s and ‘70s.

I was glad that I had the chance to share in this memorial service with so many people around the world.

Big news coming from Tuscaloosa today

By Jennifer J. Foster

UPDATE, 10:41 a.m.: It is as I thought: Tuscaloosa County GOP Chairman John Merrill is spreading the news that Gerald Allen will challenge Phil Poole, the incumbent Democrat, in State Senate District 21. END UPDATE

Fellow Alabama political watchers, there is big news on the way from the other side of the state today, and it involves State Rep. Gerald Allen, a Republican from Tuscaloosa.

Behold:

PRESS CONFERENCE - TODAY

State Representative Gerald Allen (R-Tuscaloosa) will hold a Press Conference today, Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at Noon in the County Commission Chambers of the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, 714 Greensboro Avenue, Downtown Tuscaloosa.

Rep. Allen will make an announcement concerning his political future.

There will be no information released prior to the press conference.

Allen lists himself as the contact person for this release.

Allen is in his fourth four-year term in the Alabama House. According to his legislative biography, he has passed bills relating to Alabama’s Mercedes-Benz project, which opened the door to other automotive manufacturers locating in the state; heightened requirements and restrictions on sports agents operating in Alabama and the Marriage Protection Act, which defines marriage in Alabama as a union between a man and a woman. In the current legislative session, he serves on the committees on commerce and government appropriations.

He might not plan on releasing any information ahead of the official announcement, but I’m alll but certain I know what’s coming. I wish I was closer to Tuscaloosa. I would go to the news conference.

Is anyone out there in the area planning to attend? I would love to hear from you.

Honda’s Odyssey makes “most American” list

By Jennifer J. Foster

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember back in the fall when I got a bit fired up at our union friends from up north who were blaming the growing auto industry in the South for a lot of their financial problems.

You know the argument: Americans quit buying American, so GM and Ford and Chrysler just couldn’t sell as many cars.

Of course, if you understand capitalism and free markets, you know that no one is guaranteed the corner market on automobile sales. So if you trust American consumers to make the best decisions for themselves when it comes to cars—and that involves safety considerations, space, fuel economy and MSRP, among other things—then it’s ridiculous to suggest that the growing auto industry of the South is in any way to blame for Detroit’s failings. The reality is that if the Big Three were producing the kids of cars with the kinds of perks with the kind of gas mileage at the kinds of prices Americans want, there wouldn’t be such a demand for Toyotas and Hondas and Kias and Hyundais; thus, there wouldn’t have been an opportunity for those companies to expand into the South.

So ... since folks (read: union leaders and northern politicians) continue to blame the South for Detroit’s failings, they must think either that Americans should spend their hard-earned money on vehicles that are substandard in design and function, even when there’s something better available and for a better price, or they don’t believe in capitalism.

And the biggest thing that bothered me about this, other than the creeping realization that it is a growing possibility that some of America’s flagship companies have abandoned their capitalistic underpinnings, is the sanctimonious attitude among so many union leaders that union workers from up north were somehow more entitled to jobs in the auto industry than non-union workers in the South.

What selfishness.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger especially epitomized this attitude, and I wrote this post about it after seeing one of his news conferences wherein he blamed people who buy Hyundais and Hondas and Toyotas for the loss of union jobs up north.

Ugh. Gettelfinger’s comments still make me mad now, even thinking back on them.

Anyway, I said then that the cars that are manufactured in the South, even though they are for so-called “foreign” automakers, are American products just as much as cars in Detroit. That wasn’t the case 15 or even 10 years ago, because there wasn’t an auto industry to speak of in the South. But it certainly is the case now. Not only do you have these huge plants that employ thousands of Americans, but you also have related industries—suppliers—that spring up around them to support them. Those business are, in many cases, not only full of American workers, but they are owned by Americans. And then you have the related businesses that are established—the diners where the workers eat, the gas stations where they fuel up to head home, the construction companies that build the homes into which they move when they get those jobs, and so forth.

Are these Americans somehow undeserving, unworthy, of jobs in the auto industry just because A) They don’t live up north, and/or B) They aren’t members of the United Auto Workers union?

Well, well, well ... all these months later, I am vindicated, along with thousands of others who made the same arguments during Detroit’s bailout days on Capitol Hill.

Cars.com released its annual “American-Made Index” last week. Guess how many so-called “foreign” manufacturers had models in the Top 10?

FIVE.

That’s half.

That’s right: Fully HALF of the top 10 cars on the “American-Made Index” are made by Toyota or Honda.

And guess what that means?

Only five out of the Top 10 cars on the “American-Made Index” are made by American manufacturers!!

And the “most American” car, according to the list?

THE TOYOTA CAMRY, proudly made in the U.S.A. by hard-working men and women in Georgetown, Ky., and Lafayette, Ind.

The Honda Odyssey came in at No. 4. The Odyssey is made right here in Alabama by the hard-working men and women of Lincoln!

As you’re digesting the reality that the most American car out there is actually manufactured by a Japanese company, here’s something else to think about: Given the newfound fiscal constraints on American automobile manufacturers, what with that government bailout and all, the trend is actually toward increased foreign manufacturing of American automobiles! So don’t be surprised if, in next year’s Cars.com list, American manufacturers hold a minority of spots!

Yes, we live in a truly global economy. So, northern politicians and union leaders who look upon the South and its growing industry with disdain, enough with this geographic superiority complex. The facts simply don’t support it anymore.

See also:

Umm ... where’s THAT money going? Blog post from Nov. 10. Democratic leaders in Congress huddle with one of their most ardent political supporters regarding the Detroit bailout bill.

Reaction to Gettelfinger, blog post from Nov. 20. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) reacts to Gettelfinger’s tirade against the auto industry in Alabama.

“Big Three bailout request rejects capitalism,“ my column from Nov. 24 where I had had enough of Gettelfinger and the blame game.

Weekend roundup, blog post from Dec. 15 about Boycott Alabama Now, a movement meant to punish Alabamians—not only for having the gall to compete with Detroit, but also for electing a senator who expects capitalists to be ... well, capitalists.