For Michael

Michael Jackson was my childhood. I don't remember a moment I wasn't excited when a music video of his was on T.V., and I still listen to his Thriller album (best selling album of all time), his Off The Wall album, his Blood on the Dance Floor album, his History albums i and ii, his Essential album... My dream was to see him live in concert. I'd gladly give up every concert I've ever seen to have seen him once.

People have a lot of love and I'm so amazed at how much the whole country was brought together by the passing of such a human icon. He wasn't just an American icon, but a WORLD icon. In his passing, all of us lost a part of our childhood and for some of us, a part of our soul.

Besides being a musical and celebrity icon, he was also a humanitarian icon. Michael Jackson did not take his duties as a citizen of the work lightly. He released popular music that dealt with real issues: starving children, racism, the environment, issues of privacy, etc. He felt that his music could do more than just make people smile and dance, he felt he could literally "heal the world." I feel that in his passing he did just that. Not to the level where everything is better and everyone is happy and there is no more war, but to the level where people are being brought together through a common love and appreciation.

Do not preach to me about love, peace or understanding and refuse to acknowledge the passing of a human icon. While the focus in the news may be drifting from celebrity deaths like Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett (both of which are also incredibly sad deaths), it is not because they are not as important or special... It is because they simply didn't reach as far as Michael did. He was listed in the 2000 Guinness Book of World Records as the pop artist who supported the most charities in his career, he was awarded a humanitarian award in Washington D.C. for his work fighting AIDS in Africa, he donated all the money he recieved doing a Pepsi commercial to the Michael Jackson Burn Center for Children, he and 44 other artists recorded a song he and Lionel Richie wrote called "We are the World" and all the money from the record when to a charity for starving people in Africa... the list literally goes on and on and on and on and on. (He also visited every President in the course of his life! You can google to find out just how much he really did during his career for charity.)

I know that a lot of people will still believe we are paying too much attention to Michael Jackson's passing. I know that, even worse, people will continue to make jokes about his death. But know that you are witnessing a death which, in my opinion, is even bigger than the death of Elvis Presley. You will never forget where you were when you heard he died and you will probably tell your children about it one day. You can't pay too much attention to the death of a person who affected so many people's lives in such a positive way. You just can't.