Prevent the Failure of History: Approach People With Facts, Not Beliefs

In today's society, when someone dies, they are either heroized or vilified. I realized this upon the death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. I watched the coverage of his memorial service, which was closed casket, and realized that when a person dies, people lose all feelings of condemnation, hatred, or any type of negative feeling towards the deceased. Now, I'm not saying we need to air dirty laundry at funerals, by any means. I am just stating that there needs to be truth used when we approach the memory of a dead person, and collect the facts of their life, not smooth over their rough spots. I am not saying that Michael Jackson was a child molester because, in fact, I believe he was innocent. He was, however, ACCUSED of child molestation. Now I know that each person is entitled to their own opinion, but I also believe that it should stay the same no matter what fortune befalls said party. When MJ died, hypocrites came out of the woodwork to say things about him, but mostly his fans remembered him. And by fans, I mean the people that refused to believe Jackson was even on trial. Those that see him still as that light skinned boy in a white suit off of the "Thriller" album cover. This unfortunate process of mourning practiced by his fans seems to leave the impression that Jackson was not an entertainer, but rather a god who happened to grace the earth. While I don't agree with that statement, I am not condemning MJ. That would be like saying that even though Saddam Hussein died, he had many redeeming qualities and should have been kept alive. Bringing up Saddam presents the second point of this blog, however. When people who aren't in such "high" places die, they tend to be vilified. When a convicted murderer dies, people are able to justify it in their minds by saying "Oh, well he was a murderer, and evil, its okay," when in actuality, the man was someones' father, someones' brother, someones' son. Just like I said I was not codemning Michael Jackson, I shall also say that I am not trying to bring about the pardoning of criminals. Entertainers are still entertainers, and criminals are still criminals, I am just trying to bring into the realization of everyones' mind that history is often skewed by the heroization or vilification of people after passing. This is why history seems so cut and dry. In WWII, the Axis were villains, and the Allies were heroes, but my grandfather brought up an interesting point the other day. When the Allies cracked the German code, they found out that the Germans were going to bomb the English city of Coventry. Here is where the heroization of Winston Churchill becomes a little shaky. Churchill is said to have sacrificed the city, knowing full well that it was about to be bombed, and decided to do nothing so that the Germans did not know their code had been cracked. Also, you would be chilled to the bone to find out how much modern medicine is based off of Nazi discoveries while studying in concentration and death camps. Both sides in this war have been called heros and villains, but in the end, all they were is a victor and a loser. This is the way that I believe the studying of the life of deceased people should happen, calmly approached with fact, so we can prevent the failure of our historical records due to inaccurate recording because of the heroiztion or vilification of certain figures in history. All of this work was due to the appreciation of Michael Jackson, and the chaotic events that lead me to create a blog.

Post-script: an explanation of the title.

This posting is called prevent the Prevent the Failure of History: Approach People With Facts, Not Beliefs because I believe that people should meet people or remember people as they were, not as they believed they were. If someone writes a book with evidence saying that Michael Jackson really did molest a child, and presents proof, I will change my opinion of him because I want to remember him as he was, not as the innocent man I believe he is.