PeterGlenshaw.com

Quick Thoughts on Michael Jackson

On a night when I could write about a host of topics -- the sudden warm weather in New Hampshire, the wobbly economy, or the joy and sadness which comes with seeing your children grow  -- I thought it might do something completely different with this blog and comment on a person with popularity.

The news today that Michael Jackson unexpectedly died will no doubt receive an significant amount of attention in the coming days, weeks, and months. Towards that end, I don't pretend to offer much.  First, I wasn't a huge MJ fan, to be honest, though I was also not blind (or deaf) to the obvious.

What was the obvious?

Talented -- of course.  Insanely talented.

Breakthrough artist -- absolutely.  He defied categories in the early 1970s with the Jackson 5 and again as a solo artist in the early 1980s. 

Weird, and maybe even a criminal, person?  All of the evidence was circumstantial, as far as I could tell, but there's no question this was not a person operating on the same cylinders as you and me.

So, with that mixed bag before us, let me simply share two brief, positive, and indelible memories of Michael Jackson.

First, the Motown 25th anniversary special, which aired in the spring of 1983.  I remember reading a very positive review from Tom Shales in The Washington Post of the TV special, and spent that evening watching most of the broadcast.  Michael was simply electrifying.  After appearing with this brothers for a reunion of songs, he appeared unadorned on stage to sing "Billie Jean."  It was crazy.  The audience reaction was insane and I remember thinking, especially after he moonwalked, that it was one of the greatest live performances I had ever seen. 

The second is a bit more obscure -- a 20/20 ABC News story on Michael, right around the time of "Rock With You," and it was about how this child star was emerging into an artist in his own right.  The piece featured this funky thing called a video of "Don't Stop," and all I can remember is feeling (in that pre-teen body of mine) that this was some funky stuff.  Not deep funky, mind you, but an everlasting, cross-the-galaxy funky.  The kind of thing which was deep and light and forever.

In both instances, Jackson stands in my mind as a someone who could shatter a person's understanding of popular music.  I will always regard John Coltrane and Miles Davis (and maybe others, like Stevie Wonder) before Michael Jackson in terms of overall importance in American music, but there's a special place for him nonetheless.

Maybe it's right here.

On dark nights in Winter, when we finish dinner early and the kids grab the iPod, there are two artists who get Mom, Dad, and all three kids dancing around the kitchen:  the Bee-Gees are one, but it's always, always, always Michael who gets everyone out of their seat.  Dishes are ignored, hips start to shake, and there is abandon in the air when that dudu-dat-dudu-dat drum bit comes a'tremblin' and that wompa-deh-wompa-deh-wompa bass line hits the speakers from "Billy Jean." Suddenly the madness of the world is far, far away and we are nothing but funky people, grooving to that-can't-resist rhythm that came from a young man born in Gary, Indiana many years ago.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

While it's been nearly forever since I last posted on this blog, the absence owes nothing to a lack of issues about which to write or words written about those issues.  They've just not appeared here.  Why?  A lot of it has to do with my new work schedule, which (owing to the economy) sees me officially at 80% of my usual work schedule.  It's more like 60% of my usual work schedule, but in terms of this blog, it's meant I've needed time to get comfortable with the new routine.

Enough about me; let's jump into the fray, where I'd like to suggest that New Hampshire took two incredible steps forward tonight, and one big step backward.

The first piece of good news should be obvious: Governor Lynch signed into law today a bill which makes the Granite State the 6th state in the union to recognize marriage from same-sex couples.  It's a huge step forward -- not simply on the issue of rights for all citizens, but on the issue of marriage itself.  At a time when the number of single parents is increasing, this is a step forward to encourage the opposite.  Marriage is not for everyone, but let's not put any hurdles in the way of those individuals who seek to establish such an important union.

The second step forward involved the statement from New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (a Republican) that the proposed budget out of the New Hampshire Senate, which would bring 13,000 video slot machines to the Granite State, would damage New Hampshire's "quality of life.  As AG Ayotte put it, gambling leads far too many people to increased rates of "bankruptcy, divorce, child abuse, domestic violence, and crime." 

Let the church say "amen."  There is nothing positive that comes to the New Hampshire brand when 13,000 video slot machines are littered throughout the state.  It's bad enough to consider gambling as an honorable means upon which to finance basic government services, but the idea that one of our most precious assets -- the quality of life in New Hampshire -- would be trashed so quickly is disgraceful.  Congratulations to AG Ayotte for opposing this short-sighted measure.

The step backwards, of course, came when the New Hampshire Senate today voted to support a budget which depends upon these 13,000 video gambling machines as revenue source.  By a margin of 2-1, the Senate ignored not only the wisdom of the Attorney General, but also the common sense of most voters.  According to a poll from UNH taken earlier this year, only 41% of Granite State voters support candidates who support legalized gambling -- hardly an endorsement. 

I'm terribly disappointed that the Upper Valley's two Democratic senators -- Matt Houde and Deb Reynolds -- support this gambling-dependent budget. As we saw with the gay marriage bill, it's increasingly clear that the most important political issues of the day defying simple political labels like Democrat v. Republican or liberal v. conservative.  What we need in New Hampshire (and in the nation) are neo-realists -- politicans who make practical decisions based on evidence rather than prescribed ideology. 

I'd reckon that if more such politicans existed in New Hampshire, I'd be crowing about a terrific 3-steps forward from the Granite State.