Thursday, July 16, 2009

KING & JACK

"First we're gonna give you a fair trial, then we're gonna hang ya!" The facetiously used quote from old western movies could have easily originated in post-Civil War communities throughout the United States and applied to black suspects all across the country. From a group of individuals as varied as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Muhammad Ali, the late Michael Jackson is merely the latest in a long line of the formerly "accused" being lambasted and slandered .

Accusations are enough for the media to bestow guilt based on a generally larger degree of melanin in the suspects skin. Having held that blacks "...have no rights that a white man is bound to respect," the US Supreme Court basically labeled the long held caveat, "the presumption of innocence," FOR WHITES ONLY! Years later the news media still angrily precedes the monikers of long time distinguished attorneys Johnnie Cochran, F. Lee Bailey, and Alan Dershowitz as OJ lawyer F. Lee Bailey, etc. Mr. Dershowitz, already renowned for getting the attempted murder conviction of Claus von Bulow overturned and a subsequent acquittal at a new trial, is still often tagged as OJ lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

New York Congressman Peter King and the various columnists and talking heads who have since labeled Michael Jackson, since his tragically unexpected death, as a pervert, child molester and pedophile would likely be highly offended if they were accused of a racially prejudicial aspect to their claims. Yet these charges never seem to cross their lips, pen, or computer screen whenever writer/director Woody Allen makes an award-nominated film. At the end of a long courtship, Mia Farrow, former paramour of Allen and mother of two of his children charged the filmmaker with sexually abusing their daughter - a charge, which like Michael Jackson, was vehemently denied. It later became public that, during the relationship, Allen had taken naked pictures of Soon-Yi Previn, Ms. Farrow's teenage adopted daughter. Allen's defense of this betrayal of Ms. Farrow's trust was that Soon-Yi was 18 years old. He basically claimed that Miss Previn's age was not an indication of a sexually predatory nature towards children. Yet, by his own admission, Woody Allen has spent decades in therapy for various kinds of emotional angst. Whether his sessions on the couch involved a proclivity towards pedophilia, only his therapist knows for sure.

However, it strains credulity that a man of Allen's vast age was repeatedly capable of saying "no" to appearing at the Academy Awards but could not say no to snapping naked pictures of his girlfriend's daughter. And after marrying the exceedingly younger Miss Previn, there was barely a peep from the fourth estate that Woody Allen forged that marital union to "beard" the allegation of child molestation as members of the media vociferously claimed after the marriage of Michael Jackson to Lisa Marie Presley.

To this day award winning actors line up, and will take less money, just to work with the likes of Woody Allen and fugitive convicted child rapist, Roman Polanski. Amid charges that he raped a 13 year old girl, for which he was subsequently convicted, Mr. Polanski fled the United States and has never returned. His films continue to be distributed and honored in the United States. However, nary a scintilla of disgust from concerned congressmen or outraged media personalities accompanied the standing ovation given Mr. Polanski as he received, in absentia, an Academy Award for Best Director for the film THE PIANIST.

And as Rep. Peter King vows to fight and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fence-sits concerning a Congressional Resolution honoring the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, the Congress might recall that the proclaimed King of Rock N Roll, Elvis Aron Presley, dated and vacationed with future wife Priscilla Beaulieu from the time she was 14 years old - without sex, so they claim. And that drug-addled rock icon is commemorated on our US postage stamps.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you for voicing my sentiments. I am going to link your blog on Twitter and forward to my e-mail distribution list. Good work!