[RavenSong]

LoveAjax, I understand what you're saying. It IS hard to separate the man from the performer, especially for a generation that grew up on his music. He was a musical genius...of that, there is no doubt. I will never, ever forget his performance on Motown's 25th Anniversay Special on television back in the early '80s. When he tipped that top hat of his and did the "Moon Walk" for the first time in public, well...it was just downright electrifying. And when his "Thriller" music video was shown for the first time on MTV, my partner and I hosted a HUGE party for the event. The whole party ended up dancing out in the street, along with all the other neighbors' parties in our university neighborhood! (Have I ever mentioned that I was rather wild in my college days, lol?)

But, you know, within a couple years, a lot of us started getting weird vibes about Michael, especially when he started carrying Webster and the chimpanzee around everywhere...and then Cory Feldman, Macualey Culkin, and so many other young boys. Personally, I just thought he was a multiple personality at the time, and that one of his "child alters" was the personality that was surfacing in public. I also thought that was the reason his speaking voice had changed so drastically from a few years before. (MPD was all the rage in the '80s.) When rumors started surfacing about childhood abuse, I wasn't surprised -- I had been fully expecting it to come out.

I feel really badly about how his life turned out -- kind of like a combination of Howard Hughes and Joan Crawford. Michael was certainly a tortured soul who happened to be a true genius. But, dang it, he had really poor judgment, really poor common sense.

When the child molestation crap started coming out, I wasn't surprised...sad, but not shocked. What gets me ticked off, though, is when I see his victims being re-victimized by people who say they were out for the money. Once...maybe...but twice, three times, four times...where does it end? If he hadn't been famous, if he hadn't been filthy rich, if he didn't own the Beatles' catalogue, would he have been treated the same as a poor man or woman who can't afford the very best legal defense? Of course not... There are two very separate levels of justice in this country -- one for the rich and powerful, and one for everyone else.

I will always admire Michael's musical genius -- that's coming from a fellow musician who never made it into the "big time". But I do not admire the man, himself. He was a man who had automatic entrance into every single place in this world -- and yet he died a very isolated, lonely man, estranged from most of his family and friends. I think maybe his money and fame cost him everything in the end. Maybe if he had just been like the rest of us, someone would have had the guts to lay down the law to him many years ago...