Disclaimer: I in no way wish to denigrate Ms. Fawcett, Mr. Jackson, nor the pain and anguish of their families, friends, and fans. I feel for them, and I wish them comfort. But let's get some perspective.

Michael Jackson's musical influence and pop icon status are undeniable, whether or not you believe any of the accusations against him as a man. Farrah Fawcett was not merely the quintessential pinup girl of at least two generations of men (I soooo wanted that bikini poster when I was a kid, but my parents wouldn't hear of it.) and, in many cases, women. Post-Charlie's Angels, she used her celebrity to bring attention to victims of domestic abuse, even while fighting her battle with terminal cancer. These things are significant. Did they, and do they continue to, affect our collective consciousness? Is it right and proper to mourn them? Should their deaths be reported upon and discussed? Absolutely, and I criticize no one for doing so.

I strongly suspect, though, that were they were to rise from their graves like the dancers in Michael's Thriller video, zombie-Michael and zombie-Farrah would both say something to the effect of, “Thanks for the attention, guys, but there are more important things going on in the world.”

Whatever your feelings or beliefs on the following issues, no sane person can question their importance.

In just a few days, our soldiers will leave Iraq to sink or swim on its own. We are finally making a serious effort to hunt down Osama Bin Laden. Our drones are killing civilians in Pakistan. Iranian citizens are being persecuted for protesting what many there and around the world believe was a rigged election. A former vice-president has confessed on national television to authorizing war crimes. (We—and by we, I mean the US—have executed citizens of other countries for authorizing and committing these same acts. In fact, we helped define them as war crimes.)

For years we have been holding—without charges—prisoners whom our own military intelligence says were mistakenly arrested. We have a state governor and former presidential running mate who tacitly approved of calls to assassinate the man who would become our current president. We have radical organizations attempting to impose theocracy upon us with domestic terrorism, disinformation campaigns, and the rewriting of history. We have a minority party which has publicly stated that its primary goal is that of driving down the approval ratings of the other party, as opposed to doing right by the American people, and whose tactics are so dirty that they have even, on at least one occasion, been criticized by Karl Rove himself, the poster boy for dirty political campaigns.

We have 42,000,000 citizens who cannot afford health insurance or proper health care, and the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world. We have a United States senator who brags about making a recent trip to China for the express purpose--and this was him saying it--of trying to discourage the Chinese government from having confidence in its financial dealings with the the US.

A little focus, please?