On June 25 the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died.
To be sure it is a tragedy for his family which includes three young children and his creditors to whom he reportedly owes 400 million dollars. (This includes a pharmacy which sued him for $100,000 for unpaid drug deliveries.) But I find it completely baffling that his death is being treated as the loss of a world healer, leader or saint.
Michael Jackson was an extremely talented song and dance man – maybe even a genius. And for his talent and hard work he was handsomely rewarded having sold over 750 million recordings. This allowed him to live a fantasy life. He bought whatever he wanted including children.And that’s where the ugliness begins, continues and should end.
By his own admission he shared his bed with young children, boys mostly. Sometimes it was at Neverland, his own fantasy land and sometimes it was at their houses with their parents permission. On a major network interview he admitted to sleep overs with the children while vehemently denying anything happened. Maybe it didn’t but if 45 year old Gus the gas station attendant was having sleep overs with 9 year olds down the street what would you think?
Then there was the “Jesus Juice” , the meds on the night stand and the “girlie magazines” in plain view of the children. All perfectly normal. Uh Huh.
The guy, talented as he was, had problems. All this behavior finally led to two indictments, big payoffs to accusing kids and their pimp parents and finally a salacious child molestation trial. He was acquitted mostly because the jury hated the boy’s mom. The Law set him loose to wrestles with those demons that he saw in the mirror and which he mutilated himself to destroy.
Now he is dead probably a victim of his own self loathing.
Society should say a prayer for his repose and admire his contribution to the musical and choreographic arts.
But the idolatry being displayed by our culture syas way more about us than Michael Jackson.
At the core of it Michael Jackson was an entertainer , possibly a genius and possibly a child molester. His great talent does not overshadow the fact that he was a danger to children, whether he wanted to be or not.
And his great entertainment value for us as a society does not excuse the way we devalue women and children and their health and safety in the face of great charisma, money and glitz. Shame on us. We should remember the words from “Billie Jean” – “My mama always told me be careful who you love” If we are not careful we”ll be mutilating what we see in the mirror.

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