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Shame On Mike
Y ou would think that, once you died, any ene- mies you might have had would feel a great deal of sat- isfaction in the idea of you no longer being around and that they were able to outlive you. Sadly, though, that's seldom
the case.
In reality, your death only
marks the beginning of a new era in the beef. One that af- fords them the luxury of trash- ing your reputation while you're incapable of defending yourself.
This, unfortunately, seems to be what's happening to Michael Jackson. It wasn't enough for those who de- spised him that he spent much of his adult life being dogged and mocked relentlessly. Now, after being deceased for a decade, they're giving his image a post-mortem beating with the release of the sala- cious documentary Leaving Neverland.
The film, that premiered Monday on H.B.O. and OWN, centers around two men, Wade Robeson and James Safechuck, who claim Jack- son molested them on multi- ple occasions at his California ranch when they were pre- teens. Their sordid stories
paint Jackson as a monster who manipulated their inno- cence for his own perverted pleasure.
The problem with this project, aside from the fact that it rehashes the same garbage we've been hearing for decades, is that one of the men, Robeson, has repeat- edly denied that Jackson ever touched him in the past and even went as far as to tes- tify on Jackson's behalf at a trial where the pop superstar faced similar charges. He says that he decided to come for- ward with the "real" truth be- cause, as he put it, he was tired of living a lie.
Anyone with the common sense of a fruit fly can see that these two men are doing noth- ing more than attempting to capitalize off the current #Metoo movement that has worked to expose the biggest predators in the entertain- ment industry.
With an irresistible oppor- tunity to get a piece of the sex- ual assault pie at their fingertips, they were more than willing to risk being viewed as liars and hypocrites because they knew there were enough people, who would buy into the nonsense, to
make their efforts profitable. The saddest part of it all, at least to me, is that Jackson's family is forced to defend him while probably still mourning their loss. The potential grief they would suffer as a result of this large scale character as- sassination wasn't even an af- terthought to those who made
this movie a reality.
What we're witnessing
now is the unintended conse- quence that comes when the choices a person makes in his or her life leave behind more questions than answers. Those of us who loved Jackson in spite of his weirdness never wanted to believe that he was capable of doing any of the disturbing things we heard over the years.
But, the fact is, because Jackson continuously placed himself into awkward and in- appropriate situations and cloaked himself with such in- tense secrecy, we really never knew for sure.
The lesson I think we can all learn from this spectacle is that the mark we leave here on Earth doesn't disappear once our bodies take up residence in the grave. To the contrary, they either turn into badges of honor or embarrassing stains for those left behind who were closest to us.
How we ultimately live our lives determines which.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Company. You can contact Mr. Barr at: cbarronice@gmai- l.com.
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‘Sanctuary’
ention of the word “sanctuary” threatens to turn
a staid Hillsborough County Commission meet- ing into a verbal free-for-all. Municipalities from Tampa to Plant City turn a blind-eye and a deaf-ear to the subject as if its mere mention promises a possible political kiss of death or civil conflict, nonetheless. And perhaps, it will. But why?
Constitutional and religious scholars argue that the term sanctuary (which simply means “place of safety”) could be seen not only as the basis of our Judeo-Chris- tian faith, but also as the foundation of our American Democratic ideal.
Yet, opponents would counter that the term “sanc- tuary” – once humanitarian --- has de-evolved into a self-serving hash-tag abused by less-than-ethical politi- cians and underworld criminal minds to infiltrate American borders with outside undesirables, thereby weakening the fabric of our nation-state. We wonder: What would Jesus say?
Nevertheless, this county, this state, and this nation find itself caught between a word and a hard place. America and the Statue of Liberty, both symbols of sanctuary, may presently be forced to redefine them- selves or at least their motives, inserting the words “reason,” or “reasonable” into such phrases as Ameri- can Democracy, thereby making it to read “Reasonable American Democracy,” etc. Once again, the shift of our words reflects the shift in our national/spiritual opin- ions.
Meanwhile, like Joseph, Mary, and their swaddling child, we continue to search for the meaning of sanc- tuary.
Humans Being Replaced With Computers
trip to Walmart shows you how far technology has progressed from the ’80s when the intel processor was barely able to move one giga- byte of data. The majority of Walmart’s checkout lanes are being eliminated with auto-
mated machines.
This automated process
saves the company from pay- ing actual humans to do the same job. According to Forbes magazine technology has al- ready taken over 90% of jobs that humans used to do. In the ’80s people scoffed at the idea of robots taking over the jobs of highly skilled workers. Yet, in the car industry robotic arms now mimics human movement and make less er- rors than human workers.
In the food industry bar- codes and hand-held ma- chines have helped grocery stores hire less skilled workers
than they once needed.
In sports, technology has
replaced the teams of medical professionals with sophisti- cated software and tablets which can prescribe medicines and supplements for profes- sional athletes.
Many consumers will em- brace the prevailing domi- nance of new age technology. But others may start to won- der if they will lose their job on the assembly line or as a nutri- tionist due to computer driven codes and hardware.
Cloud services also is mak- ing big splashes in the indus- try as the cloud now helps to drive technology.
One major silver lining to all this innovative technology is machines, like humans do break down and need to be re- paired. In some instances, software, too, will crash. This means there will always have
to be a technician or repair person somewhere nearby to open a ticket and respond to the site within minutes or hours.
Years ago most jobs in the United States were dominated either in the agricultural field or working in a warehouse with machines. These ma- chines barely did the job and were dangerous to manage. Humans were the main focus and force behind each task.
Today, warehouses are so advanced it only takes a flip of a switch to complete many im- portant daily duties. The pro- gression of technology bares bad and good news. Silicon Valley is still growing which means more jobs for Google and startup companies.
There will always be a need for more programmers, engi- neers, computer technicians and scientists. The bad news is people will need to adapt to new age technology by acquir- ing new transferable skills or potentially lose their jobs.
It is estimated that at least a third of the U. S. workforce by year 2030 could be re- placed by some kind of robot or automated service. Artifi- cial intelligence once consid- ered too costly to implement continues to be developed to human like standards.
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FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A