Thanks for the Goldstein article heads-up. He was dead-on, unfortunately.

Your letter truly touched me. Thank you for putting IT in perspective.

RIP Michael.

I never believed it. And I'm even white. (So, you know, my opinion counts more or something...) I thought it was a shakedown from the start and I still do.

I'm not going to try and convince anybody right now because I don't actually care what you think. But climb off your frikkin' high horses. LOTS of people think he didn't do it (including a jury, btw) and are sincerely mourning the man who's art they loved.

Over all these days, hearing words ranging from "genius" to "freak," I yearned for someone to remind us that any death, even of a celebrity, is ultimately the departure of a person, whose life affected, and was affected by, people who knew him/her, starting with the family.

And I finally heard it, in the voice of a little girl mourning her father.

It brought to mind the anguished cry of Linda, the widow of Willy Loman, in "Death of a Salesman." As much an iconic American character as Michael Jackson, Willy had his faults, as Linda admits. Still, she declares to her family and the audience, "A human being has died and attention must be paid."

We were paying attention, for sure. But it took a kid to remind us why we should be.

Thanks, lateagain. I wrote a few posts on OpenSalon but I already waste enough time on Salon...

JCourt: "Here's your argument in a nutshell: "negative behavior" gay. "negative behavior" gay. "another negative behavior" gay."

This is a misrepresentation, as most of what I listed could not be categorized as negative behavior (a lack of attraction to a woman, style choices, etc.).

JCourt: "This is complete bullshit. Being gay is a positive, natural state of being."

I am not arguing that it isn't, only that Jackson had traits that would point to him being gay. Not everybody's sexuality is going to manifest itself in "positive, natural" ways, even if sexuality itself (gay or straight) is a positive, natural thing.

JCourt: "Michael's problem is that he was abused, grew up in the biggest spolight there was, his dad beat him and thus he had no childhood, and was emotionally/sexually stunted in many ways because of ABUSE."

The idea that Jackson was abused and psychologically stunted is not mutually exclusive to the idea that he could have been homosexual.

Jackson had many effeminate traits and other aspects that would be consistent with a person having homosexual tendencies. I don't think they could be explained solely by abuse.

JCourt: "All his surgery was to be NOT who he was - it has nothing to do with "gay.""

Did you know Jackson personally? Then you don't know these things for sure any more than I don't. This is my opinion, nothing more, but when I see somebody who has surgery to turn his nose into a little Michelle Pfeiffer nose (but smaller), it suggests to me that this person identifies with the feminine in some way.

JCourt: "Gay people DON'T suggest boys masturbate in front of them."

Of course not, nor is that implied in what I wrote. All the same, if an emotionally stunted person had a choice of having inappropriate sexual interaction with an underage person, and chose to have that interaction with a person of the same sex, I would suspect that person of being homosexual.

Let me continue to emphasize that my argument has nothing to do with suggesting in any way that there's something WRONG with homosexuality. Quite the opposite. My argument is that I think people might subconsciously realize that they collectively created a negative social climate where a sensitive, isolated, emotionally stunted gay person would be compelled to hide his true nature from himself and others. I could be wrong.

JCourt: "And it was never proven that Michael did any of that anyway."

It's my opinion that something happened that was inappropriate enough for Jackson to settle out of court. It was never proven that Bill O'Reilly sexually harassed an employee but I would bet big money that he did.

JCourt: "I think he spent his whole life trying to get his childhood back."

Undoubtedly.

JCourt: "Your "gay" rant IS offensive. What Michael did has nothing to do with being gay - it had everything to do with his abuse."

Sorry it's offensive. I am happy to back down on this one.

I am little conflicted over Michael Jackson in general, in terms of as a public persona, an emblem of the Black community here in the United States. At 22, I was a little young to really know know or be an avid fan of his music, but I do remember enjoying songs like "You are Not Alone" and "Black or White" when I was a little kid. To see the retrospective on him as a child star until his later years, definitely is sad, at the same time it is hard to separate the incomparable talent of this mythic entertainer, from the, quite frankly circus act that seemed to encompass his personal life. I often think about the child molestation charges, these are extremely serious, dire accusations, and the fact that over the years there have been several against MJ, is a definite cause for alarm. This is partially why I am conflicted, the Black community loves to uphold Michael as a some sort of martyr for Black pride and acceptance into mainstream society, when, let's face it Michale himself never actually embraced the Black community and instead spent his whole life trying to disengage himself from it i.e. the plastic surgeries, skin lightening, his White children...On the one hand, I appreciate his immense talent and contribution to pop culture, on the other what exactly are we lauding? No one is perfect I suppose...but is interesting, what is sadder most about this man, is not the fact he was in such abysmal health when he died, or his alleged drug addiction, but the fact that in spite of the gazillion of dollars earned during his lifetime, and world adulation, he clearly was not happy with who he saw in the mirror, self-hate is tragic thing...maybe that is the most important lesson of all to be learned from the Michael Jackson legacy.