I've watched him for years... and when Michael sang "I'll be there"... it was in a voice so clear and compelling i can actually hear it in my memories... it would find me seeking out my bedroom radio to turn up the volume. It was a time when I could sing along and hit every note without straining... This song didn't make me want to dance so much as just bask in his singing. Young Michael had a beautiful voice... He shared the pages in Tiger Beat along with his Brothers, David Cassidy and the Osmond's. When he came into his own... it wasn't me seeking him out... it was ordinary people at work... a mom with kids who adored him...the mailroom guy ecstatic at scoring concert tickets. When "We Are The World" came out a colleague of mine put the radio on at 12 noon that day when she informed us it would be broadcast around the world at that time. When he played at the Giant stadium with his brothers in the 80's the mailroom kid came around telling us how phenomenal the show was. I was a church kid who had my mind on the words of Jesus and trying to get myself to embody His teachings in my waking life. No easy fete.... But i was young and i was determined and i was really trying.... but did i see Billie Jean and Thriller later then originally broadcast... for reasons i care not to disclose i left church and the environment that fostered the better part of my Christian actions in this life time... But I can tell you ... that when he sang Black or White years later... He spoke for my generation... ( i was born the same year as MJ) ... so for that I am truly proud that a talent with that level of heart spoke to the ills of this world... as can be heard in him singing "Man in the Mirror"... To watch MJ was watching the music come alive... to watch what you wish you could do with your body when you let the spirit of the music and that call to awareness and change come through to doing something meaningful and world changing with your life... I am hurt to see that he has been ripped apart by the media because of his appearance... because he obviously had this strange substance addiction to anesthesia or a suicide wish... I lost my very talented older brother much to young... he was bigger than life to me... he was the kind and proud believer in my fledgling dream to e an artist... funny since he died i can't seem to hold steady to that course... so i feel for his siblings and parents... know how much our family was shattered beyond repair when he died... the end of the world comes to us one at a time... that great phenomenon... it's the end of the world... well much of my life ended when my oldest brother died... and just recently with the passing of each loved one... my Dad and especially my beloved niece who was like a daughter to me... so when someone gets the soap box and can say something meaningful and get the attention and the world to cry over our callousness and superficial ways... its a sad day for the world... I will remember him for his charity in hosting thousands of terminally ill children at his home to play at his privately owned theme park.. that he raised 60MM from the "We Are the World" video for famine relief in third world countries... that he spoke at Oxford University for his "Heal the Kids Initiative" about his life and lack of a childhood and his coming to terms and forgiving his Dad... putting forth a childrens bill of rights...
