The Passing of an Icon and His Practical Canonization

I know that I will probably receive some heat for this one, but I can deal with that...

Michael Jackson died. It was a day that nearly everyone will remember for the rest of his or her life. I was sitting at my kitchen table and it was the headline on commercialappeal.com. I yelled to my mother to inform her of the sad news and was met with nothing but a shocked, "wow." Within moments every television station and radio station was covering the ground breaking news.

So here we are five days later. What have we seen since then? Where do we go from here? How many tribute songs, albums, television specials and concerts will follow in the next year?

I really only want to tackle the backlash that has followed such a momentous occasion in entertainment history. As for where we should go from here and the tribute stuff, you can deal with that on your own.

I remember vividly watching The Jacksons: An American Dream on vh1 almost every summer from 1995 to 2000 and being completely enthralled with the whole messed up story. Michael's rise to fame was fast and interesting to say the least, but the man that passed away last Friday was not the same little boy that grabbed the nation's heart with his four brothers in the 1970's and continued to hold onto it as he thrilled us throughout the 80's and early 90's. It is very apparent (unless you've lived under a rock for most of your life) that something went bad wrong somewhere along the journey from magnificent to maniacal.

There's really no point in discussing how incredible Michael's dance moves and singing and writing and entertaining were. If you've watched TV over the past few days, you've seen plenty of that. What I really want to discuss is how his death can nearly wipe his very dirty slate clean.

It seems that in the wake of Jackson's passing, millions have ignored or forgotten the inexplicable things he did as his career and life spiraled downward. I understand that it is really sad for the music and entertainment industry to lose such a phenomenal performer, but should we just excuse his actions and deeds because of his death? Should we completely shrug off that time he grinned and held his own child over a high-rise balcony as a publicity stunt? Is it fair to act as if he never acted inappropriately when he was around young children? I mean, in all seriousness, these are things that were very real and very disturbing to say the least.

Over the past few years, Jackson fled the United States after being charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse and administering intoxicating drugs to the victim to perform the lewd acts. While he was cleared for these certain crimes, it is hard to dismiss all the other rumors and accusations that were directed at him for the better part of the 1990's and early 2000's.

Do these things not disgust and repulse us as a society? Should his career be enough for us to forget these things? I personally still appreciate his music as I listen to it while writing this and have listened to it extensively over the past week. I appreciate his innovation for dancing and his ability to entertain billions of people. But I can't find it ok for millions if not billions to act as if the only man that died last Friday was the sweet boy from the Jackson 5 and the incredible dancer and singer from Bad, Thriller and Off the Wall. The dark side of Jackson died Friday as well, and it's not fair to honor him in such a way as so many have without first considering the objectionable acts he committed in the waning years of his storied life.

The same principle rings true for Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. We should value these people as entertainers, storytellers and performers, but just because they have passed on does not mean that they have become saints and have escaped their pasts. I don't want to vilify Jackson with this piece. I just want to be honest with my opinion. We can't simply turn our heads to some aspects of a life and lift up others. That's not fair to anyone.

But, as far as giving my honest opinion goes...

He really was awesome at what he did.