I have loved his music since I was a little girl. I think that this is difficult for we "oldsters" because we have grown up with his talent - and, sadly, we have also watched his life derail over the years. My boys are in the "don't much care" category (although I explained to my oldest son a bit about MJ's relationship with his father and how everyone wanted a piece of him, etc. and I think that he was touched by the sadness of that). Several years ago my husband and I were watching a J5 retrospective on TV. Our youngest (who was perhaps 8 or 10 years old at the time) came into the room and asked who was performing - we told him that it was the J5 and noted that MJ was the lead singer. His response was, "No way, that's a little black boy!" It broke my heart - especially since I am part of a mixed race family and we sometimes struggle with having to remind our "ethnic" children that they should be proud to be themselves. At the time I could not explain to my son why MJ had changed himself - now I think that I can better, but not fully, understand it (I have heard that one reason was because he did not want to look like his father) - but I am sad that my kids mostly think of him as a man who was ashamed of his appearance and as a possible pedophile. I personally can not get past the fact that he invited young kids to sleep in his bed - even if there were no sexual activities involved (and shame on those parents) - either way, it indicates that MJ had severe psychological issues and he was willing to put children at risk. I am sad that he was a tortured soul. I hope that his own children will somehow manage to grow up happy and healthy and I hope the he has finally found peace.

The peripheral tabloid fodder has been dwarfed by the recent rehearsal footage showing a vital, vibrant, on top of it Michael. He was NOT washed up.
And was MJ irrelevant? 9 charting records, 3 selling 100,000 plus. His memorial will be second most watched since 2.5 billion watched the funeral Mass for John Paul the Great.
Incredible. This dwarfs Elvis' and John Lennon's post death coverage.
Paul

Michael was not allowed to be a child and experience childhood; hence Neverland. I think deep inside him, at what ever ripe old age, he harboured the feelings of a child and thus identified in relationships with children. He surrounded himself with children when most his age would go after women. Michael was very much at odds with his father, or more perhaps the drive of his father to bring success to the group. Michael was not to be a part of that group because of his youth and the belief by his father of Michaels inability to perform. His mother changed that, but his father continued to be hard on him...hence the song Man In The Mirror... Michael was a child with the means to get nearly anything he wanted. The kid in the candy store.

Listen to him speak and see if you pick up on how uneducated he sounds in conversation; like a child speaking with a child's heart.

Watched another retrospective yesterday, this one about MJ (not the J5). Sad, sad, sad! He did seem like a man/boy - I think that he really just wanted to be loved, and tried to make it so, in some odd ways. Another example of the fact that fame and money are not the things that make people truly happy - even his mega-talent was not enough to make him feel good about himself. We all struggle with it, to some degree, in our own lives - and the bottom line, I think, is that we want to feel sincere love.

Perhaps something I heard on ET(of all programs)will help those people who are beating their breasts over Michael. First, the rehearsal footage shows that mj was not a poor shell of his former self. Nope, mj was on it. In the moment. Pumped and happy from the footage and according to those around him. Lou Ferrigno stated he saw mj taking multivitamins.
Most importantly, one of the very last things mj said-''I'm happy. I'm back. I have three beautiful kids, a great family. I'm happy.''

I'm watching the Michael Jackson Memorial. Brooke was great. Jermaine is singing 'Smile'. I am quite touched.
We have be willing to talk about it all. The valleys along with the peaks. We have to acknowledge the valleys. Because, ladies and gents, the peaks of his music and his and his humanitarian efforts absolutely dwarf the tabloid stuff and those who insist on ''accentuating the negative''
God Bless and multiply the good...acknowledge the bad.Look-at-it-all.
Peace.
Paul

I have no intention of starting a firestorm.... this is how I feel. I wrote this on my facebook this afternoon:

Michael Jackson is on my mind. The public doesn't appreciate genius until they're gone - think about Michelangelo, DaVinci, Mozart and Beethoven and how they were misunderstood in their lifetimes.

And while I'm wallowing in watching the Memorial while I work... I'm actually going to say something controversial. Rep Peter King from the nice town of Wantagh, NY should apologize for his insensitive remarks.

With the American Legion in the background, he made a statement over the 4th of July about the sacrifice of our military and their families. Nice sentiment - and true.

But he contrasted the coverage of MJ with the meaning of the holiday and how it was dominating our news. He took the opportunity to call MJ a pervert and a pedophile. Nothing like using the military to mask what he really wanted to say - total hypocrite....

If Deepak Chopra and Donald Trump were OK with their kids hanging out with MJ, why should we believe 2 families who couldn't even get their accusations aligned. No wonder why MJ didn't trust adults - with all of the leeches around him....

I am glad that his children were at the age of innocence that MJ so believed in.

Sorry, Kat, like you say, opinions are opinions. King is entitled to his opinion. He's been around a long time and has never been been labeld racist before. When people say OJ is a killer it's no different than saying MJ was a pedophile. No reason to be outraged or appalled as the evidence or shall I say circumstances in both cases were pretty convincing and leave it at that. I'm certain none of todays journalists covering MJ in icon status would let there children sleep with him.

It is my opinion that Gregory Hines (who most MJ fans probably never heard of) or most any of the 60's and 70's Motown singers can dance and sing far superior to MJ.

Steve... I didn't label Peter King as a racist.

If he wanted to state his opinion, then he should have let his words stand on his own - instead of using the military as his shield. I think that's hypocritical.

If he felt so strongly about the military and their sacrifice for our country, then that's appropriate for the 4th of July and standing in front of the American Legion for his personal YouTube.

He took the opportunity to vilify Michael Jackson, a controversial statement that was sure to get some press time.

That's why I think he's a hypocrite.

Convincing to whom? Those who would rush to judge? I submit that what you call convincing evidence/circumstances is merely an out-of-context piece of information that is useful only in validating previously held animosity toward the accused.
Only a handful of people know the absolute truth about O.J. and Nicole, Michael Jackson and children, Kobe Bryant and that concierge in Colorado, yet that doesn't stop millions of self-appointed judges, juries and executioners from spouting off about evidence that they themselves never saw.
We can all believe what we want. But I am continuously amazed by how many people complain about Congress and activist judges violating the Constitution, but let a celebrity scandal surface, and they ignore one of the Constitution's most crucial aspects: that a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.