Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett
Life is unfair, but death can be, too.
After a life time of achievements, a long public battle with anal cancer, and a “love” story that was never allowed to be completed, Farrah Fawcett died today (June 25 2009).
However, before Farrah’s body even became cold, news broke of the death of larger than life pop star icon Michael Jackson. Jackson collapsed in his home in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles at about noon Pacific Standard Time. He died of what is known as sudden cardiac arrest. That’s when the heart stops beating and quivers because an artery is blocked, which could be caused by substance abuse. “Substance” includes prescription drugs, with which Michael was suspected of having trouble. An autopsy is scheduled for June 26, which should be telling. He is survived by three children and two ex-wives. [ CNN story, CNN Larry King Live interview, CBC, June 25 2009]
Now, everything from Twitter to all the news network to Facebook and such is flooded with nothing, and I mean nothing, but the life and death of Michael Jackson. Nobody gives a damn about Farrah Fawcett any more, it seems. Just like that. Forgotten within hours with one piece of news.
Such a shame. Death can be just as unfair as life.
On a different note, though. Despite Michael Jackson’s death being a big shock to the world, the scenes I’m seeing on TV is of people dancing in joy, smiling and laughing to MJ’s music. They’re not crying like the memory I have of John Lennon‘s death, having been in Canada just months when it happened and having no idea who he was at the time because children were so deprived of information in Viet Nam. Lennon’s death was a completely mysterious phenomenon to me trying to figure out what was going on, seeing repeated pictures of all those people crying and pictures of this gentle looking man with those round spectacles.
There are many reasons why people would mourn the deaths of John Lennon and Michael Jackson differently, but I’ll leave that to you. It’s definitely interesting to analyze. I just didn’t expect what I am seeing of people “mourning” Michael’s death, though I am glad to see they are celebrating his life more than mourning his death. Below is a video of Billie Jean, my favourite Michael Jackson song to dance to, and I’m going to go do that like those other people.
In the meanwhile, though, give Farrah Fawcett a thought or two, eh?
And don’t forget all those protesters in Iran, who are dying without mention but whose cause is also now lost on the media for a while. It is about the worst thing that could have happened to them and their cause, to have a pop star steal the media from them. Michael Jackson is still impacting the world like nobody can!
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 8.2
Digital Citizen 
R.I.P King of Pop Michael Jackson
May he rest in peace.
We all are going to miss him.
He’ll live in our hearts forever.
Thanks for your comment. Wholeheartedly agree. It’s just tragic Farrah and others are lost in this whole media frenzy.
I was saddened to hear about the loss of Farrah Fawcett but more so that she had to share her day with Michael Jackson. With all that Farrah has been through, she deserved her own day for people to mourn her.
Thank you for both your comments, Le and Rachel. I completely agree with you. Perhaps no day is a good day to die, but as is proven here for Farrah and people fighting for freedom in Iran and other places, there are worse days to die. Maybe on her funeral day, if nothing crazy happens like yesterday, Farrah will have her day.
I will have to agree with the above article about …The Tragedy of Having Your Death Trumped…..sometimes “”life is unfair,but death can be too….””, Farrah Fawcett passed away but has been pushed aside because of Michael. Farrah deserved to have her day too to be rememebered.
I personally feel saddened by what happened to Farrah Fawcett because I saw on the news what she had to go through with the cancer and also with her love Ryan Oneal, however I was born in 1982 so I did not even know she existed. She wasn’t a part of my growing up as Michael Jackson was. I remember being in front of the tv and watching his videos and trying to immitate is dance moves and doing the “hee hee’s” and leg kicking and crotch grabbing and attempting the moonwalk. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen as a child. I can never explain how he did it and I never managed to do it.
With this said, I can totally understand why Farrah’s death is being overshadowed. She was a big star to another generation, but she was not known to mine. Michael was known through several generations. He is a music icon and a legend all over the world.
It’s not that people don’t care about what happened to Farrah, it’s just that Michael was a larger than life figure.
Thank you for your comment and sharing of personal experiences, Michelle. Beautifully written with a lovely personal touch to it. On your other point of people still caring for Farrah, it is true. Michael Jackson was larger than life, spanned more years, continents, and so on. That’s why he’s getting all the attention, which he deserves, in my opinion. It’s just that people only have so much sympathy to give at any given time and it seems Michael is getting the lion share of it.
I feel sad for both losses. I have to admit I knew Farrah’s announcement was coming but Michael Jacksons was a complete shock and hit harder. When I heard that Farrah Fawcett had passed, my feeling was “so this is when”, and I hope she is in a better place. When Jackson’s news came I was breathless and could not believe it. Somewhat like Michelle I was born in 1975 and Farrah Fawcett was a person on TV that I did watch it (perhaps re-runs). She was pretty and I loved her hair but Michael Jackson inspired me and was my first crush. I still remember putting thumb tacs in the wall to hold up the lp cover of Thriller. He touched my life and his songs hold memories of me growing up. I think this is true with a lot of individuals out there. It’s sad it overshadowed her death announcement and I agree she deserves her moment. In some ways she got to witness her moment though as “Farrah’s Story” ran on the air while she was still breathing…
That’s a very nice and personal story, Tasia. Thanks so much for sharing and sharing on my blog. I agree with you it was nice Farrah saw her story ran while she was alive, but in a way not meant to be misinterpreted, it was nice she passed away without knowing Michael Jackson would have hours later, too. I don’t meant it was nice she died early, just that if it were at about the same time, give or take a few hours, knowing the media was all over Michael’s story probably would have either crushed her. Either that it’d have willed her to live on for another week or so.
As for your other comment, I saw the first similar story on NBC this morning (Sun Jun 28) about whether the media got it all wrong to forget about Iran and just focused on Michael. They still forgot Farrah. It’s all a big shame, ain’t it?
As far as people dying in Iran…
The media is wrong and this news should overshadow all of this. I believe Jackson and Fawcett would want it that way. It’s a tragedy what our news has become…