Another look at this much-chronicled past, “Dillinger’s Wild Ride,” by Elliott J. Gorn, a professor of history at Brown University, is the first to be published during our own hard times. In it you learn that ordinary law-abiding Americans even wrote letters to newspapers and politicians defending Dillinger’s assault on banks. “Dillinger did not rob poor people,” wrote one correspondent to The Indianapolis Star. “He robbed those who became rich by robbing the poor.”

Gorn writes that the current economic crisis helped him understand better why Americans could root for a homicidal bank robber: “As our own day’s story of stupid policies and lax regulations, of greedy moneymen, free-market hucksters, white-collar thieves, and self-serving politicians unfolds, and as banks foreclose on millions of families’ homes, workers lose their jobs, and life savings disappear, it becomes clear why Dillinger’s wild ride so fascinated America during the 1930s.” An outlaw could channel a people’s “sense of rage at the system that had failed them.”

As Gorn reminds us, Americans who felt betrayed didn’t just take to cheering Dillinger; some turned to the populism of Huey Long, or to right-wing and anti-Semitic demagogues like Father Coughlin, or to the Communist Party. The passions unleashed by economic inequities are explosive because those inequities violate the fundamental capitalist faith. It’s the bedrock American dream that virtues like hard work and playing by the rules are rewarded with prosperity.

Several public figures passed away last week, including Ed McMahon, Billy Mays, Farrah Fawcett and of course, Michael Jackson. Each of them made a difference for people and we don’t have to go into how they were important. The point is, they were and will remain important for years to come.

When I consider the tragic life that Michael Jackson led, and how he told his former wife, Lisa Marie Presley, that he was afraid he would die the way her father Elvis did, one wonders how many other people have had the internal struggles that Jackson did.

People get addicted to innumerable things. Alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, sex, shopping, video games—each is problematic and each can lead to destruction. But in Jackson’s case it was a combination of problems. He struggled with self-esteem issues borne from his childhood. He was anorexic, weighing a reported 112 pounds at autopsy (he was 5’10” tall). He was addicted to pain medications and was under the stress of having been in the public eye since he was 10 years old. That makes 40 years of worldwide scrutiny. He would have been 51 on August 29th. It’s no wonder that he was a tormented and emotionally devastated artist.

Even Elvis was old enough to understand what was going on when he first performed. Michael Jackson could not have known what it meant to become the sensation that the Jackson Five became. We can assume that he had a ball performing as a child. At least one would think so. But the stories of abuse and the chronic stress of being better than his last performance or his latest recording took its toll. He was a perfectionist. Many of us claim to be perfectionists, but we really aren’t. Not in the way that he was. Everything he did was examined by everyone, regardless of whether they had the credentials to criticize. That’s the nature of art, however. Everyone’s a critic and few are experts, but we judge nonetheless.

Many people can relate to Jackson’s problems. I see patients who are equally as tormented as he was, perhaps without the public scrutiny. But those who have suffered abuse, neglect, and tragedy can understand better than most of us how much pain he must have suffered. There is a constant internal dialogue in people who suffer. Some are optimistic, some pessimistic, some cynical. Michael Jackson appeared to be the optimist. Witness his California ranch, named Neverland after the story of Peter Pan. At Neverland, boys never have to grow up, never have to face the real world as awful as it can be. They are protected, kept away from those who would cause harm.

His predators were those close to him, much as they are for others who have suffered similar trauma. The “rag sheets” or gossip papers may have caused him pain, but he denied that they mattered to him. No, it was those he trusted, those he had to remain close to, who eventually caused his downfall.

We become obsessed with our looks when we are children. We learn about guilt and shame, two very different things. Guilt is about having done something for which we may deserve consequences. Shame is socially based and has nothing to do with guilt. We can be ashamed of the color of our eyes, despite having done nothing wrong to make them whatever color they are. Michael Jackson certainly appeared to be ashamed of how he looked.

Of what are you ashamed, having done nothing to deserve this feeling? Your nose, your body? What is this shame based on?

Where do we first learn shame? Probably about the time we were being potty-trained. Think about it: Parents may not mean to implant these feelings, but the “yucky” face they showed when we made a stinky, or the disappointment they expressed when we broke something sunk in. It may not have been our fault. We may have dropped the milk, just trying to be “grown up.”

Or, how about this: Boys who are crying often hear “you need to be a man. Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.” Wow. How does a 5-year-old even understand what that means except that it’s shameful for him to cry?

Michael Jackson may have been a famous man, but he was also deeply troubled, just like many “normal” people. He could have overcome his troubles, but unfortunately, his money may not only have insulated him from help, but attracted people who only wanted to use him and not protect him. There were many people who loved him, but he couldn’t seem to understand and love himself enough. And that seems to be at the root of many of our troubles, even if we aren’t famous.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/07/06/guilt-shame-and-public-life/

“Grilled to perfection” and “world famous” are two phrases that the Chicago Tribune would like to strike from menus, and MenuPages Chicago adds to the list: “We bristle at near-constant reminders of kitchen equipment (“wood-fired oven” should appear once on the menu, if at all).” What would you like to never see on a menu again? [Chicago Tribune via MenuPages Chicago]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nymag/grubstreet/~3/orhpcX91xrQ/bad_language_on_menus.html

After 30 years of planning, the MagLev project between Anaheim and Vegas lost one of its biggest proponents last month to a train part of the federal high-speed rail corridor. Nevada Senator Harry Reid is now behind the DesertXpress between Southern California and Las Vegas that would mainly go along Interstate 15. Unfortunately, the phase planned right now only goes between Vegas and Victorville. Why Victorville? Their website explains:

Of course it would be great if DesertXpress could be extended to downtown Los Angeles, Anaheim and Ontario, and someday it might. But for this initial project, it is critical for the station to serve the Southern California market and be financeable without public tax dollars.

Victorville makes a lot of sense because it is the first major population center northeast of the Cajon Pass through the San Bernardino mountain range separating the High Desert from the Los Angeles basin. Victorville is within only a 30- to 45-minute drive for roughly 5 million people who live in the Inland Empire, Antelope Valley, and the eastern portions of Los Angeles County, and only a one to two hour's drive for most of the rest of the Southland's 21 million residents—many of whom routinely drive at least an hour to and from work each weekday.

Victorville also is the choke point of I-15, where the roadway narrows from from four through lanes to three in each direction. With the station in Victorville, DesertXpress avoids the uncertainty of the challenging 200-mile drive across the Mojave Desert that could take anywhere from 4 hours to 10 hours - you never know, because of congestion and incidents or accidents.

Yes, someday "it might" go to Los Angeles." The Victorville leg will cost $3.5 to $4 billion for 200 miles of work--that's less than proposed subway to the sea in Los Angeles.

http://feeds.gothamistllc.com/click.phdo?i=fd96378d54edb916a6843b908ad5b096