I think it is fair to say that Michael Jackson was a quirky eccentric, and very lonely despite his wealth and fame, and was probably in need of some help that he didn't get.

But you are right, he managed to hold it altogether, despite the hardships of his life, which would have broken most people.

No one is a saint, but aside from some inappropriate stuff he might have done with some children (none of which - even if true - I think constituted sexual abuse or anything illegal; yes, it is possible to behave inappropriately but not abusively or criminal), Michael Jackson came pretty close.

One thing is for certain, when I talk to my kids about Michael Jackson, and I will because I love playing his music, I won't let the rumors tear him down.

First, the boy who brought charges against jackson said in an interview that Jackson slept on the FLOOR, not in the bed with him.

Now, Joan, third time posting this is the charm:

It's a freaking FUNERAL. If a little girl wanted to say something at her non-celeb dad's funeral, would you have a problem with it?

If you went to your friend's funeral would you want the whole thing to be about all of his fuckups and eccentricities, or would you want everyone to celebrate the good he did and how much he was loved?

There will be plenty of time for the media to dissect this man and discuss his foibles and faults.

This was the tribute of his family and friends - to them, he was father, brother, son, friend, not "strange man".

What was surreal was the fact that we were watching them grieve the man THEY knew. What is surreal about your comment is that you expected them to talk about the man WE "knew", and all the media hype and the mud.

Why should they? It's the funeral of someone they love, not some media creation.

You mean dance, sing, write song lyrics, and compose music as well as Michael Jackson did?

Probably not many who can do all that, and certainly not as well as Michael Jackson did, but I would like to think that somewhere out there in a rather obscure place some kid is practicing his/her dance moves, playing with a karaoke machine and musical instrument, and using Michael Jackson as inspiration to become the next great performing talent.

That kid will emerge out of his obscure place, trust me, and we'll have Michael Jackson to thank for having inspired that kid.

I've read and seen just a little about the Staples Center (is all publicity good?) wake, but it's very likely representative of the whole. I would bet dollars to donuts that your post contains more humanity than all of the TV coverage combined. It is very hard to look past Michael's recent image, but you've helped me do that and remember when he was music.

I'm very curious to know if other people (okay, white people) Michael's age were into him back in the day. Not the Jackson 5, but Michael's solo career. My guess would be not that many, present commenters excepted because of selection bias.

I am just baffled by your assertion that serious music fans don't appreciate Michael Jackson. Anyone who cares about contemporary pop in any form knows that MJ changed the game. His influence is enormous.

There seems to be a generation gap on this issue. It seems to that anyone under 40 gets why this is a big dealio---whether you care about it or not. Also, I'd way rather see wall to wall MJ coverage than Sanford coverage. There have many stupider things to dominate the news cycle.

I liked the memorial alot. I especially loved Stevie Wonder's great dark song. It was an admirable effort and an excellent job to produce something that big in such a short time. It was everyting that MJ was:

crazy,great,talented,inappropriate,poignant,opportunistic,a spectacle,a train wreck, also carrying on the exploitation theme, i.e. putting his child on stage, ostensibly to say good bye and perhaps coincedentally to voice what will be a

great sound bite for the, perhaps, custody battle ahead. A great move by the Jackson machine.

Always follow the money....and in this case I believe MJ was in default to the people who mortgaged his portfolio; thus having to do 50 tours when he only set out to do 10. Imagine being $300 or $500 million in debt!

Watching the MJ memorial four times in a row also made me realize I have to amend my will to ban all politicians from speaking.

There was however an inadvertently funny moment, that was edited, when Jermaine waved to Stevie Wonder....reminded me of a friend who was a quad telling me of a fire and rolling up to the elevator which said in case of fire, take the stairs. a true story and so was MJ. He simply mirrors in life and death the great craziness of the American landscape. We are the World. Bat s--t crazy but still functioning.

despite his acquittal on the criminal charges brought against him, in 2004.

Furthermore, a lot of people seem to think that the biggest tragedy in this whole affair is the fact that Jackson managed to somehow skate on the charges- despite his acquittal by a 12-person jury.

I'd like to submit this: if Michael Jackson was actually a guilty pedophile- especially a serial pedophile- the greatest tragedy in all this is that of all of the kids he invited to be his companions at his Neverland estate, and on tour, apparently, only three of them ever accused him and made their names known--

the first accuser, Jordie Chandler, took what is said to be a $25 million settlement:

Last year, after a long, frustrating search, I managed to track down Jordie Chandler. I sent him a letter and left phone messages asking if he would talk to me about his life since 1994, when he collected $25 million from Michael Jackson. He never responded. Jackson's lawyers always claimed that Jordie's father, Evan, was an extortionist, and it has been widely reported that the greedy Chandlers took the money and ran. Ray Chandler, Evan's brother, who spoke with me extensively, says Evan put $20 million in trust for his son; the rest got distributed among his former wife, June, the lawyers, and himself. Chandler always wanted to get money from Jackson, but initially he hoped to keep the case from going public...

http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2004/03/orth200403?currentPage=9

(what's up with that?)

The son of one of the maids at Neverland:

...Jason Francia, the handsome son of a former personal maid at Neverland, was the only young man to come forward and tell the jury that Michael Jackson had molested him, beginning when he was seven. After five years of therapy, the devout evangelical Christian said, he now works as a mentor to troubled young people and as a salesman of auto parts. He was 17, he said, when he learned that his mother, Blanca Francia, had agreed to a $2.4 million settlement with Jackson over three allegations of fondling him, and he had found out only two days prior to taking the stand that she had sold her story to tabloid TV for $20,000...

That curious: the mother, a maid, winds up with $2.4 million, and somehow neglects to inform her son of her good fortune for four years after the cash-in.

Then there's the plaintiff in the 2004 trial, whose allegations were held to not stand up in court:

..Jackson was acquitted of all of the charges against him following a surreal trial. His accuser’s reliability and credibility were destroyed by defense attorneys, but I always felt that the physical difference between Jackson and the young man told a clearer story. The “victim” was big and tough; twice the size of Jackson. He could have kicked Jackson’s ass. The idea that the defendant could have imposed his will and his body upon the young man was simply not credible...

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2009/06/in-court-with-michael-jackson.html

That's an excerpt from a recent Vanity Fair article published just last week, by Andrew Cohen.

If Jackson was a serial pedophile who had victims other than the accusers above- whose stories appear to be either tainted by blackmail, or not credible- all of his other victims must have either been paid off or threatened into total silence- presumably with threats of grave bodily harm.

And if that's true, that says more about the moral depravity of the families than it does about Michael Jackson. Moreover, if- of all of the children he had around him for several years before the first civil suit allegations- Jackson and his allies in the cover-up scheme had a 100% success rate in obtaining the silence of other victims of his molestations: then that speaks to a real moral rot in the USA.

But- as I've noted previously- I'm skeptical of that narrative. Using the details found in the Vanity Fair series of articles by Maureen Orth, surrounding the Jackson molestation allegations, here's my reasoning as to what doesn't add up about the Jackson case:

1) The Vanity Fair article reports that there were several payouts to various children during the time that the molestation allegations first surfaced. The Vanity Fair articles also intimate that other victims were intimidated-coerced-threatened into silence.

That doesn't sound right, to me. Coercion is the tactic of someone who feels assured of impunity. In a case where a victim or witness is subject to being threatened, they're usually lone liabilities, so to speak; it's very difficult to threaten more than perhaps two people into silence at once. Also- and this is important- coercing witnesses plus huge cash payouts in response to to extortion threats are a very unlikely combination.

The power dynamic of someone managing to successfully threaten witnesses into silence lies with the perp doing the threatening; on the other hand, the power dynamic of someone handing out large payoffs is weighted on the side of the person getting the money. Combining the two tactics? Not usually done- at least not at the same time. And if you're dealing with multiple victims- as this case is said to involve- it doesn't ring true that half of them would be threatened, and the other half would be paid off. Because word gets out. Blood in the water. Paying off is clear proof of weakness- that someone can be blackmailed.

And somehow- once again, presuming Jackson's guilt- no other victim or victim's family was virtuous enough to refuse that hush money, and say "this molestation traumatized me so badly, I felt it was my duty to save other children, and therefore I've made it clear that I have no financial interest in this case"...no one?

(continued)