Quest for the True North

I believe Michael Jackson was innocent

Filed under people

I grew up believing that he was a pedophile, that he was gay, that he had himself bleached because he didn’t like his color. At that time, in the 1990s, he had begun to lose his luster, and the child molestation charges against him were what greeted my consciousness. I wasn’t part of the generation that worshipped him. I knew nothing about his genius. The only songs that I could sing to were his Heal the World, because we sang it in class in third grade, and You Are Not Alone, because it was a hit in the mid-1990s. (I realize now that I’d heard most of his songs then, I just didn’t know that they were his). I knew that he was famous, but to me, he was just another name.

So when the news of his death broke out, I shrugged. But as it is impossible to get away from all the coverage on TV and on the web sites that I visit everyday, I got curious about him and dug deeper, and from what I pieced together from bits and pieces, I found a heart-breaking story of wasted genius, of someone who was so good at at what he did but was mocked for being himself.

He was just a child who didn’t grow up, and thus didn’t know how to handle his finances, keep his marriages, or sniff out people who clung to him for his money and status. His former wife, Lisa Marie Presley, said that he always “magnetized vampires and leeches”, which I bet included some of those who were close to him.

Plus there are the criticisms of his being bizarre, and his odd looks. What’s wrong with being bizarre? I can handle bizarre as long as it does not bring me harm, and as long as it is not a threat to the social order. True, it is not usual for an adult to live in Neverland, watch Disney, put up amusement rides, and play with children. It is not usual to change one’s appearance, but being unusual doesn’t equate to being bad.

But it was the child molestation trial that destroyed him. No one could have come out unscathed from that, not someone who didn’t have the emotional strength of an adult. I tried to look for a court copy of the 2005 trial because I wanted to decide for myself if he was guilty or not, but there was none. All there was were summaries, and reports from the point of view of journalists. I don’t trust media at all, or what is written out there. I don’t readily accept what I read.

I learned many things from working on the Subic Rape Case: (1) what is aired on TV and printed in newspapers is vastly different from what actually happened inside the courtroom–either the press intends a slant in the story, the more controversial, the better, or the legal argument is lost to the journalist who is covering the trial that the story comes out different, and by the time it is passed on from ear to ear, it becomes an entirely new story, (2) a large chunk of what the public knows is unfounded, and (3) public opinion can be very harsh, way beyond what a human deserve. There were times that I would shut out the news and ignore the messages from the public, because they were all toxic. I couldn’t understand why anyone would spend so much time and energy spewing poison, when, I’m pretty sure, their personal lives need mending, too.

But I digress. Michael Jackson was acquitted by a jury. Sure, he must have had the best defense lawyers, but I would give him the benefit of the doubt before spewing vile at him. I would not ostracize him, especially if I am not sure about what I know. I would not ostracize someone based on something that I merely heard or read from elsewhere. I liked what Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas said at Jackson’s memorial: “Our constitution upholds that everyone is innocent until proven otherwise.”

So true. We are so quick at claiming our right to that, and yet we are the first to condemn others, especially those who do not conform to social norms. I feel strongly about being scorned for being different. It’s easy to tell who are the losers: when a person opens his mouth and starts criticizing, I know that person is a loser. I’m pretty sure most of Michael Jackson’s critics can’t Moon Walk, can’t compose and sing, and have dysfunctional aspects in their lives, too.

If Michael Jackson indeed was innocent, then the world owes him big time. It was said that the charges marked the start of his downfall, and that he never recovered from the trial in 2005. In fact, he left Neverland, the only place where he said he could have the childhood that he never had and be himself, for good. I wonder about the prosecutors and reporters who built their careers off of him. I wonder if they are happy now.