G L Franklyn.Com

June 28, 2009 – by Gregory Franklyn

I wanted my little statement about Michael Jackson to settle for a few days before starting in on him. I mean to show at least a modicum of respect for the man’s contributions to music, dance and culture. He was an exciting creative force and arguably the very best all-around entertainer in the history of the world.

I have my own little story about Michael Jackson. The Jackson 5 first hit the airwaves while I was a junior in High School. The very first record album I ever purchased for myself was “Dianna Ross Presents The Jackson 5”. I recall being endlessly teased by my contemporaries for being so in love with those guys. Everyone else was listening to Steppenwolf, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles.

Michael Jackson was 10 years old when he sang “Who’s Loving You” and I’m listening to that recording 40 years later and asking myself how it’s possible that a mere 10 year old could sing that song like that! It was clear that we were seeing and hearing a genuine phenomenon. For me, the very best work that the brothers did together was “Dancing Machine”. That title song is still one of my favorites and even these many years later it still holds up as a uniquely complicated musical achievement and it still takes conscious effort, on my part, to stop my body from moving when I hear it.

I’m telling you all of this to make the point that I was a huge fan of Michael Jackson at the very beginning, even to the point that I suffered personal humiliation for it. But as time passed it became clear to me that Michael was in trouble and there was no one available to rein him in. He was the primary breadwinner for the entire Jackson family at 24 years old, for crying out loud. His own parents were dependent on him for everything and I believe that it was their approach to parenting, under these unique circumstances, that is at the root of the ensuing tragic nature of Michael’s life. There was no one in his life to put their foot down and say “Enough” while the poor guy walked out on shaky limbs over and over again.

Michael Jackson grew up to develop a highly refined self hatred, both individual and racial. He went on to spend this adult life trying to cut-and-paste himself into another person entirely. In the scandalous documentary where he advocated sleeping with young boys he also said he had had only two surgeries. There is no doubt in my mind that he lied and he knew he was lying when he said it. An argument could be made that he was delusional about himself, but I’m just not buying it. We’re talking plastic surgery here, it’s not like he didn’t remember it!

My separation from Michael Jackson as a cultural icon and as a fan was based on his intentionally skillful deception. His image was as a vulnerable child with positive visions of peace, justice and innocence. He made no secret of his Christianity and mentioned his devotion in public environments often. But he was also witnessed by the documentarist giving alcohol to little boys, telling them it was “Jesus Juice”. Everyone who knew him agrees that he was, behind the scenes, a shrewd businessman and a skilled manipulator of his own public image. He carefully fashioned himself into a fictional product. A comic book hero, if you will, likely intended to cover up what he actually was.

What is the difference between that and Governors John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Reverend Ted Haggard, Senator Larry Craig or any number of political and spiritual leaders, all of whom created an image of Good Christian Values and ranted against immorality and homosexuality while being involved in varying degrees of kinky extra-marital affairs. The images are creations that are not connected to reality. They are intentionally deceptive devices to accomplish a desired end; a calculated manipulation of your thoughts and feelings, as it were.

I believe that Michael Jackson was a brilliant entertainer but I don’t have amnesia about the fact that he was also a drug addicted pedophile with seriously destructive self esteem issues. I believe that because of my knowledge of his intellectual brilliance, his skill at manipulation, his lack of supervision and his access to vast resources. If he didn’t have those resources at his disposal, there is no question he would be in prison right now.

My second point is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The cultural heroes of my generation were equally disturbing dysfunctional drug addicts. For my generation they were the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. Even then it struck me as odd that people who actually were real and modeled their public images to mirror the people who they actually were, like Carlos Santana, Kenny Loggins, The Beatles, Bill Withers and even Jackson Browne are never thought of as superheroes even though, in reality, they certainly are.

I remember being in the BoysTown Canteen with my allowance in my hand. If I remember correctly, I was a senior in high school at the time. I wanted to buy a record album. There on the shelf, side by side, were the two biggest selling albums on the charts that week. They were “The Beatles White Album” and the Rolling Stones’ “Their Satanic Majesties Request”. I’ll never forget it because it was such a blatant “Good vs Evil” image.

I bought “The Beatles White Album” and began a lifetime of making music purchase decisions based on where I wanted my money to go. That is why my cultural icons are different than most. To this day I don’t own a Rolling Stones album because I’m just not interested in them, or the image they created. I see that they’ve done just fine without me; good for them!

It is as if we, as a culture, would rather give our allegiance to a fake image of something unattainable, rather than recognize very real angels who walk among us, some living as close as right next door. So here’s to Scott Brummit, Partick Miles, Terry Snowdon and Cliff Jones. These are a few of the people in my life that I strive to be more like, because I think I will be a better person for doing so.

You will probably never know who these people are, because they are the angels who walk within my view, around the corner from where I live. You have some within your line of sight too. Look for them and hold them in the high regard they truly deserve. Don’t worry about Michael Jackson, just take a moment to enjoy the fantasy carnival ride he left for you to enjoy and then turn your attention back to the REAL heroes in your life!

Much Love,
Gregory

Micheal Joseph Jackson
August 1958 – June 2009

Happy Trails, Michael, and Thank You For Everything!
Much Love,
Gregory

June 20, 2009 – by Gregory Franklyn

WARNING: Because I am discussing passages from The Bible, and the sexual deviance of Conservative Republican Christians, the Following column contains, by necessity, strong sexually graphic language and is not intended for children or immature adults. If such language is offensive to you, please scroll down to the next column NOW!

Here’s a list of sex scandals involving Conservatives, who preach morality and openly and aggressively fight against the corruption of children and who advocate for the sanctity of marriage. I “Googled” “Republican Sex Scandal” and here’s what came up. It’s quite a list beginning in 1926!

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Republican_Sex_Scandals

While watching the saga about the extra-marital affair admitted to by Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada unfold, I’m struck with quite a bit of Déjà vu. It seems like we hear of some sex scandal by a high ranking national figure in the right wing of the Republican Party every year and sometimes more than one. So, I looked it up and I was shocked at what I found. What seemed to me to be a mere perception turned out to be an absolute avalanche of kinky and sometimes even criminal sexual behavior by Republican Officials and Conservative Christian leaders.

I want to mention right here that Republicans don’t hold the patent on criminal or kinky sex. There are probably as many scandals involving Democrats and, well, everyone else too. The most famous presidential sex scandal in history has to be Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinski, both Democrats. But the “Everyone else’s” in this picture of sexual deviation are not the pious types gallivanting around the country condemning gay people for their sexual behavior and climbing on a soapbox about the sanctity of marriage. These Kinky Right Wingers are, and that puts them in an awfully awkward position.

It’s these hypocrites who, currently in their third or fourth marriages, who are the most vocal opponents of same sex marriage. These particular folks have the audacity to stand up and fight against gays or lesbians being able to legally have ONE marriage by claiming that they believe that marriage is sacred and the institution that they have come to love so much that they indulge themselves several times over, will somehow be diminished by the mere prospect of a pair gay men living quietly in Odeboldt, Iowa. I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how my being married to my boyfriend somehow diminishes someone else’s 4th marriage! I find it difficult to believe that it never occurs to these “Morality Thugs” how ironic it is that the only credible threat to the sanctity of marriage, at this point, is their own behavior.

Take the “Reverend” Ted Haggard, for example. He built himself an impressively lucrative career on preaching that homosexuality is an abomination to God and a besmirching of the sanctity of marriage. He’s a strong supporter of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) I’m surprised that he was able to preach about all of that fire and brimstone with a nose full of meth and a mouth full of dick. And, in case you didn’t get the memo, he’s quietly working his way back into the good graces of the right wing of the Republican Party. I’m not surprised, he’ll be right at home!

It’s also no surprise that the bulk of those opposing same sex marriage do so on the basis of religious morality, or more accurately, the PERCEPTION of religious morality. I find it ironic that Christians promote the bible and start kids in to reading it as soon as they are able to read. Perhaps it’s been a while since they read the part about the two young girls getting their father drunk and having sex with him in order to have his children, or the temple prostitutes who had sex with strangers in exchange for donations to the temple.

Maybe they forgot about the guy who had a crowd of people standing at his doorstep demanding that he release two guys who were visiting him so they could rape them and how he offered his daughters to them, to be raped, instead. They must have overlooked the story about the guy who had a vision and took his own son up to a mountain top and set about to murder the poor guy, or the truly ultimate S&M story about the guy they beat to a bloody pulp, saddled him with a big wooden cross, paraded his mangled, bloody body through the streets of town, nailed his hands and feet to the structure and propped him upright on that cross so the townspeople could entertain themselves by watching him die. Yet, a book like “Heather has two Mommies!” is too “Adult” for their children to witness and they ban it from school libraries! Huh?

Even Ted Haggard, who is NOT gay, despite his methamphetamine fueled butt fucking and dick sucking (just ask him, he’ll tell you) and virtually all of the sinners who have made it through religious Ex-Gay conversion therapy readily admitting that they still have thoughts about sex with people of their same gender and most, if not all, eventually resume acting on those thoughts. Evidently, this loving God, who has your best interests at heart, wants 10% of you to suffer internal conflict, emotional and psychological torture and repression of your natural instincts for your entire LIFE…OR… burn in hell for eternity!

I’m no angel myself, I once had an affair with a married man that lasted for years. It’s not like it was an accidental one time thing that just happened and then it was over. I did it, I did it repeatedly and I’m guilty, end of story! I learned something about myself in the process. I’m not the moral superman I thought I was. It probably plays into the reason I don’t preach morality to people, I’d be a poor choice of role models in that regard.

My point, here, is not to trash Republicans and/or Conservatives for whatever proclivities they might indulge in. Obviously, I understand. My point is to trash hypocrisy and the people who knowingly practice it in public forums and to implore people of good will to stop looking to perverts, child molesters, liars, rapists and adulterers for leadership and guidance about morality. Look to them for leadership and guidance about other things instead!

AND, do not, I repeat,,, DO NOT look to them for sound moral reasoning to deny civil rights to ANYONE based on who they choose to marry! Conservatives want smaller government that stays out of the personal lives of its citizens? What could be more INVOLVED in a citizen’s life than the government dictating the gender of the company you keep?

I’m a recovering Catholic. I’ve been taught from birth that evil comes from the devil and good comes from God. “Comes From”, not existing in me already. I realize now that I had been duped about that! Both good AND evil exist IN me, with relative comfort, I might add. I do not love the one and hate the other. They are both me! The only way I’ve been able to diminish the conflict between good and evil in me, is to admit my complicity with both and to accept my full responsibility for ALL of it. “Responsibility?” Wait a minute, isn’t that a CONSERVATIVE buzzword?

Much Love,
Gregory