The Man in the Mirror

Several nights ago BET (black entertainment television)held its awards and decided to pay tribute to Michael Jackson.They sang his songs,danced his dances and his sister Janet said some words in his honor.
One entertainer said the media should not be attacking Micheal's' memory by publishing things about his questionable drug use,state of his body at the time of death and his odd background.He said that the media was "racist" and should not be trying to tear down their icon because he was a black man.
OK now I'm willing to go along with you should at least wait until the body is buried before you start tearing the person apart but this is the media and any dirt, as far as they are concerned,is good dirt and the bigger the star the bigger and better the dirt.
Now comes the part I disagree with and that is calling the media racist.The entertainer who made this remark must not watch much TV.Not so many months ago when David Carradine was found dead in a closet in Bangkok, hanging bound and naked, the media had a field day with the fact that he was into kinky sex,which I am sure we all needed to know about.They interviewed his ex wives and former lovers trying to show what a deviant he was.
How about Elvis they came right out and said he was in the bathroom dead from a drug overdose they went out of their way to talk about his doctor,handlers and family.The fact he was overweight,slept with different women,had a fishing tackle box filled with prescribed drugs and his erratic behavior were all put out there by the media.
Race has nothing to do with any of this the fact is we live in a world that likes to hear about how bad other peoples lives are,trust me if they could have dug dirt up on Mother Theresa they would have gone after her too.
Sunday while at church Fr.John gave a sermon on the fall and how we as people are always looking for the bad in the world.We want to know how bad other people are so we don't feel so bad about our selves.
One of the songs Michael sang was called "Man in the mirror" it says "I'm looking at the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his ways and no message could have been any clearer,if you want to make the world a better place you have to look at your self and make the change".
If nothing else maybe that's the message we should take away from this feeding frenzy.Realize the media prints and says what the people out there want to hear and pay to read.So before you call any one a racist take a look at the man in the mirror and see how you help contribute to this whole mess and what you can do to change it.Be the change you want to see in others and in the world.