Michael Jackson's Innocence?
by K L Marsala

No amount of plastic surgery can alter the decaying ugly layers over the Michael Jackson case.  You can try to whiten, brighten, shorten, lengthen, break, reset this sad case as many times as you want and in the end, it still looks distorted.

The orgasmic media coverage delivered via microphone in hand parked outside the courthouse of the Jackson trial, depicted what has become so disturbing about how we deal with people like, Michael Jackson. The misguided treatment not only comes from the media but from our judicial system as well.  As this molestation case of 10 counts ended and Jackson was acquitted it appeared the scalpel of torture had left untold damage not only to Jackson, but also to his family members, his friends, and the victims of thoughtless parents who let their children share a bed with a man who needs help.

Watching and following this freakish show of charges against Jackson was hard to do.  This was a talented man, who was at one time a beautifully created being.  His abilities to dance, sing, write, and perform were incomparable to anyone before or after him.  Now, look at him. However, the destructive distortion of what was once a very handsome man is only one layer in the many face changes of Michael Jackson that can never be repaired.

For some of us who grew up to Michael Jackson's huge accomplishments being played repeatedly across MTV's airwaves, now sees this final destruction because those who surround him do not care or love this man enough to have helped him a long time ago. Michael's talents were his strengths, but underlying his musical abilities to soar must have been a monster lurking.  Whether this destructive fiend was his upbringing by emotionally or physically abusive parents or other family friends and members, the outcome of what Jackson is today is still what it is, pitiful and disturbing. One could even ask: have we as a society contributed to this and what can we do to prevent such from occurring again?

Michael Jackson from a young age appeared to have it all.  He and his brothers were a hit musical group.  Charts flowed with songs like "Ben" and ABC." The Jackson Five sold thirteen top 20 singles for Motown. It didn't matter where you came from or what nationality you were, the Jackson Five were hip and that Michael could groove. 

A few years passed quietly from this first glimpse of Michael Jackson and then came 1979 and MJ was back.  The album Off the Wall was Michael Jackson's first solo release. Off the Wall spent eight months in the Top Ten. It became the first album in history to produce four top ten singles. Two of his singles, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You," become number one hits and were certified Gold. Ultimately the album was certified 7x Platinum in the United States. 

Then the hits kept coming, in December of 1982 Thriller was released. Thriller contained a record 7 Top 10 hits, including "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller." The album spent 37 weeks at number one.  From the Thriller album alone, Michael mesmerized us with his dancing abilities as he performed the Moonwalk for the very first time for a live audience in March of '83.  The culmination of the Jackson frenzy was unveiled in December of '83 when MTV debuted the almost 14-minute short movie of "Thriller."  At that point, of time Michael Jackson had done what no one else before him or perhaps after him, will ever be able to do in the timeline of rock-n-roll.  It was somewhere around the release of Off the Wall that Michael began to appear facially altered.  Still a very good-looking man, but it didn't take much to understand what over hyped success can do to a person.  Jackson's sad eyes and posture told the story of a man who had begun to look like he might be uncomfortable with what was happening around him and to him.

This is but one ugly layer that many entertainers face.  Uncontrolled success brings with it pressures and emotions that most of us will never comprehend.  If one is not well grounded, events like those who fall into Michael Jackson's category can push the unstable into doing odd and strange things.  We can rewind our video players repeatedly and view the facial changes from approximately that point of time of grandiose success to what the camera caught of a man who looked like torment as he stepped in and out of the courtroom of his trial for molestation charges.  In the physical, Michael Jackson of the Jackson Five is gone and if you listen carefully so is his spirit.

Whether one thinks Jackson was guilty or not, Jackson is a person who desperately needs help.  Any grown man who spends an excessively large amount of his time locked up on a ranch called, Neverland, and shares the majority of his time and bed with young boys needs some major counseling.  Once again, in this reporter's opinion, those who surround Jackson are not interested in Jackson the person, they are more interested in Jackson the dollar sign. This last trial over the allegations of Jackson's sexually perverse situations with boys could have come down as not guilty on all counts, but within that framework couldn't the courts have at least required this man to obtain some major psychiatric treatment?  The poor guy has some major issues that need medical help.  Leaving him to continue in the same miserable state of being a "weirdo" only leaves the chances of him being accused again of the same crime.  Jackson is like an open wound and it appears those that surround him are only continuing to let his wound seep and fester. 

Sure you might be thinking, "Poor Michael?"  However, there are others just like him out there who need help and our system isn't very good at helping those who need mental help.

The last layer is--what parent in their right mind knowingly lets their children go to some strange behaving persons house. Why a parent or guardian of a child would let their youngest go and stay unsupervised and a person's house who they know might not be the most stable thinking person in the world is beyond comprehension.  To know full well that suspicions of inappropriate behaviors with minors might have occurred, but go ahead and let little "Johnny" go and stay the weekend with him -- the parent is either a complete idiot or a money seeking leech. Has good common sense left a majority of parents who are supposed to protect their children or have we a large population of parents who are extortionists?

From any angle you look at this, it was a sideline freak show. The media looked ridiculous vying for the first sneeze, cough, or disguise of the day from Michael in his day-to-day proceeding in and out of the courtroom.  The judiciary system didn't help Jackson, nor his accusers get the help they need.  The children and young adults who were forced to be participants of this show have been scarred.  Our treatment of the whole situation has left society questioning our ability to care and help bring about balance to a lifetime of bad choices.  Lastly, Michael Jackson has been left once again open to continue his mutilations of himself.  Not only physically, but emotionally as well.  We are teaching our youth that when you become a star, the only thing people really care about from that point on is how much money you can make them. 

I do not know whether Michael Jackson was guilty to the degree he was accused. Nevertheless, I do know the scalpel of abuse carved and cut up what was once a boy who had a friend like... "Ben".

K.L. Marsala is a writer for: http://www.right2think.8m.com; www.therant.us; www.opeds.com; www.canadafreepress.com; www.mensnewsdaily.com; www.freerepublic.com; www.out2.com; Independent Newspapers; Insight Magazine; American Conservative Union Foundation.

Email the Editor