"And in this corner, fighting for our freedom..."

CW reminded us of the seminal document for today's many cookouts, family reunions and fireworks displays. I'd like to ask you to take an hour or two, if not today, in the coming week, to forego more coverage on Michael Jackson and replace it with some excellent video coverage of some (my opinion only) far better examples of what is great about America. In the meantime, if you just can't get enough of young African American males who unexpectedly burst into flames during their earlier careers and you are willing to consider one who did NOT become a freakshow child molester whom for some reason the rest of the world is attempting to beatify, I urge you to consider reading about Mr. Alvin Shell. I should not treat this with such cynicism whether aimed at a ridiculously detached pop-culture and the media who feed it or not. The people in these videos, and their many peers, should not be grouped alongside such self-serving narcissists (redundancy intentional), even if only to serve as contrast, for it cheapens such rare coverage of what they did. But why, oh why, do these kinds of stories not displace the vacuous stories that fill so much of the space the networks were unable to sell off to advertisers in their so-called "news" programs? Could it be that they don't fit the script into which so many of them have vested themselves?