A “private” funeral service was held this morning at Forest Lawn Cemetery for the family and close friends of Michael Jackson. After an approximate half hour service Jackson’s gold casket was loaded back into the hearse and driven 11 miles to the Staples Center where the rest of the memorial will be taking place, causing major freeways to be shut down at the peak morning rush hour and surface streets to be closed to commuters.
I just read an article on an AP news site with this headline: “Jackson’s public memorial takes a spiritual turn”. The opening paragraph said the public memorial “struck a tone more spiritual than spectacular Tuesday, opening with a church choir serenading his golden casket”. Serenading his casket. Hey, now! How is that for spiritual!? The only other “spiritual” references I came across were that Pastor Lucious W. Smith gave the invocation (not unusual for a man of the cloth to officiate at a funeral), Lionel Richie “gave a gospel-infused (a what?) performance in front of a shaft of light evoking a cross”, and to round out the spiritual theme the Rev. Al Sharpton’s name was included as being among “those who saluted Jackson”.
Coverage of Jackson’s death has gone on almost non-stop since it hit the news early on June 25, is still going on 13 days later and, if the media can find a way (and they will) to milk another few days out of it, who knows how much longer we will be expected to pay tribute. In comparison, on November 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy, a United States president was killed by an assassin and the media coverage continued until he was buried on November 25th.
So who will be paying for this extravaganza? Will the Jackson family be chipping in to help defray some of the cost? Will AEG, the huge concert promoter, who, by the way, owns Stapley Center, be contributing any financial help? How about the thousands of fans who won the tickets through a lottery drawing? Might have been a smart idea to have the lottery, but require winners to pay $50 for the honor of attending this tribute to their idol. Some of them were willing to pay a lot more than that for a ticket to his “comeback” tour. And thousands who did purchase tickets for $125 say they would rather keep the tickets as a souvenir than get a refund.
Well, none of the above will be paying a dime. So who will? It’s you!! You hard working, tax-paying citizens of Los Angeles, a city that is already up to its ear lobes in debt. The cost is estimated at $3.8 million and going up. Who knows what the final tab will be.
There is a city councilman by the name of Dennis Zine who appears to be keeping his head when all about him are losing theirs. He is speaking out about the cost of this “tribute” to a city that is facing a $530m budget deficit. “If the Jackson family’s gonna’ spend $25,000 on a gold casket I would think that AEG and the Jackson family could help defray the costs”, Zine said. He went on to say of AEG, “They were going to do the tour. They’re talking about marketing the rehearsal. AEG is going to, one way or another, make a lot of money’”. Citizens of LA should be paying tribute to him Councilman Zine.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, is asking fans to give a tax-deductible donation to the city to help cover the cost. Good luck with that, your honor.
And the beat goes on. And the beat goes on.
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