No offense to you guys who actually like Michael Jackson, Ferrah Fawcett, etc… but I think it’s sad that American society is placing so much emphasis on their deaths.

In a Census Bureau press released in 2004, the most recent I could find, there are 35.9 million Americans below the poverty lines. -->[link] There are probably countless more on the streets, homeless and unaccounted for. These people are struggling with their day to day lives, many probably starving to death in lonely hovels.

I don’t see their deaths making the news. Instead I see Michael Jackson for five days straight. I’m sorry, but I think millions of starving children and animals are of equal if not more importance than a pop star.

That was only the American side of things. Take Darfur, for instance. According to the Amnesty USA, [link]
“300,000 men, women, and children have died
2.6 million have been displaced from their homes and live in camps for refugees or Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) or wherever they can, in a courtyard, under a tree.
An unknown number of women and girls have been abducted, raped, and abused
A generation of children has reached school-age not knowing a home”

My point? Any death is a tragedy, and should be mourned, equally.

So clearly action needs to be taken in other places as well, but how?

Here are my current suggestions:
Read the news daily, both online and the newspapers, and keep well-informed.
Locate and attend rallies for your beliefs.
Make plans for the future.
Donate to relief charities.

Feel free to comment and give me your feedback and suggestions. Also, I submitted this under editorials, which I think is the right category...