little bitty girl

Just before the Oscars, Ed Bradley of 60 minutes was interviewing Chris Rock, and Chris Rock being his controversial self, was talking about the time he saw Ed Bradley interviewing Michael Jackson. This is all a quote from my memory, so don't quote me.

I feel sorry for Michael (if he goes to jail) 'cause some dude is gonna come up to him and say, "Dance!" ...So I'm watching Ed Bradley interviewing Michael and he's asking him, now that he's a father whether he would let some 45 year old man sleep with his children in the same bed and Michael answers "Yes, there is nothing wrong with that" and all I see is Ed Bradley's face and it's saying, "Nigga, is you crazy!"

Sadly, that is what has happened to Michael Jackson. Lately, there has been a lot of shows about Michael, more on his body of work than on the controversy surrounding him. Everytime they play the Thriller or Billy Jean videos, I think to myself, "What happened?" Because something obviously did.

How could someone so wonderfully gifted, the man who brought us the moonwalk, showed us how to really dance, created the first awareness of African aid be so warped? And I am not saying that he's not warped. I am sure that he is a very, very warped person. Like Dude! You should have stopped at the plastic surgery during Beat It. You were SO cute then. What happened?

And I don't think we'll ever really know what happened to make him such a messed up person. With all the media hype, it will be one of those things that no one will ever really know the entire truth. However, if (I say "if" because everyone should really be considered innocent, until proven guilty) he does get convicted, I am all for him getting punished. People must pay their debts to society if they harm any members of the society, especially if they harm the children within it.

But I also hope that we can also learn something from the mystery of what went wrong with Michael Jackson. That this goes to show all those aspiring parents of "star" children that there is always a price for fame and that abuse (because we all know his dad beat the shit out of all of them) and religious fanaticism is never a good combination for raising children. In many ways, I feel like his parents should also be accountable as how one was raised can definitely result in such abnormalies in one's character.

At the end, you still have to respect what he contributed to the world, some good and unfortunately some evil.