Who would never believe the worst.īecause, even with all the charges of molestation, Michael Jackson always somehow seemed harmless. There were always those waiting outside the courtroom who screamed his name like a prayer, a mantra.

soldier Mark Wahlberg: 'Hey man, what happened to Michael Jackson’s face?'Īnd yet his fans stuck by him. My kids would ask: Mom, is Michael Jackson black or white? In 'Three Kings,' an Iraqi torturer asks U.S.

He embodied the vice and helped it morph into an epidemic. We were learning, along the way, about the treacherous nature of celebrity in our modern age. But it got complicated some were children who may well have used him for fame and fortune, for headlines and a book deal. Then we see him accused of molesting children - children he abused, or so it certainly seemed. Or he was just plain Michael.Īnd we see him creating the fantasy childhood world at Neverland, where he entertained children dying of cancer. Influencing music and fashion and dance for three generations of fans. Begging for a cure for AIDS with his pal Liz Taylor. Singing of brotherly love with his friend Diana Ross. We see him singing about black and white. We see him, frozen forever in time, electric on stage, sliding his inimitable way through 'Thriller,' a defining image in our collective memory. The world will have a hard time writing Michael Jackson’s epitaph. Caucasian children who wore veils when in public, and two of whom were named - who would do this to a child? - Prince Michael. A fake marriage (to Lisa Marie Presley) and sad surrogate parenting (with Debbie Rowe). His death is a shock, and we can only expect the unexpected in the coroner’s report.īut it is not nearly as shocking as the events that led to an untimely demise we might have expected even sooner.Ī child prodigy. But instead it descended into a hellish purgatory on earth - damned by public opinion and tortured by demons only he understood. Second, we mourn the arc of a life that should have been filled with the blessings of success as defined in our world: money, talent, fame and celebrity. First, the loss of a great musical and stage talent. Michael Jackson’s life is a modern day tragedy.Ī star at 11, a teen idol as an adolescent and the King of Pop before he hit 30, Jackson spent what should have been the best years of his life confused, hounded and haunted, an Alice in Wonderland creature in a world of pop culture that he helped to create.

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