Whether you loved him or hated him, Michael Jackson has been a household name for several decades. Even in his death, his somewhat “different” lifestyle is making national headlines. Everyone is waiting to see if his doctor, Conrad Murray, will be convicted of murder for feeding Jackson a lethal amount of medication. Michael’s life was anything but normal, but at the time of his death, he was trying to comeback from some of the damage that was done.
As a small child, he travelled around the world with four of his brothers, belting out tune after tune for fans. The Jackson 5 recorded songs such as ‘The Love you save’, ‘ABC’, ‘I’ll Be There’ and ‘Rockin’ Robin’. Michael and his brothers were keeping dark family secrets though. Jackson was one of ten children, and the sad truth remained hidden for many years. Joseph Jackson, Michael’s father, was abusive. This, by accounts of the family members, was part of the reason for Michael’s odd behavior in later years.
Michael Jackson became more successful in his early adulthood than anyone could ever have imagined. The success that he and his brothers had realized in earlier years was a drop in the bucket compared. Michael recorded smash hits like ‘Thriller’, ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Bad’ in his early solo days. He was on top of the world and the world had no problem with that.
The fascination with Michael Jackson did not stop at the fact that he was a great performer. Jackson was well known for his generous nature. He gave to one charity after another in order to give back to the world part of what the world gave to him. He had a gentle nature and demeanor. There was continually something different about Michael though.
One of the first things that people began to notice is that Michael’s skin was getting lighter. People began to wonder aloud if he was trying to make himself white. The accusation was that Michael was bleaching his skin. Michael vowed that this was not the case. He stated that he had a rare skin disease that was causing his skin to become lighter. Michael went from a dark brown to a very light skinned man through the years.
Michael lost his chubby look by the time he hit his late teens. His body wasn’t the only thing that slimmed down though. His nose was quite different than it had been in the past. It was slimmer than it had been with a different shape. People noticed but it wasn’t a big deal. Stars have nose jobs all the time, among other things.
The older Michael got, the richer he got. He now had the money to do whatever he wanted to do. It didn’t appear that he realized the image he was making for himself. It wasn’t that he had gotten selfish; in fact, it was quite the opposite. He still gave his time and money to charitable organizations. It is some of the other things he did that led to stories that were strange and sometimes true. For instance, he built an amusement park at his ‘Neverland Ranch’. He wanted to be like ‘Peter Pan’ who never grew up. He invited children to spend time at the ranch to ride the rides all the time, which later led to allegations of sexual abuse from some of the boys who spent the night there.
There were other rumors, many not true. One of my all-time favorites is that he slept in a ‘hyperbolic chamber’ to slow the aging process. The tabloids had a field day with Jackson’s life and it never slowed down. Time continued to pass. Jackson was acquitted of the first child sex abuse case and settled out of court on several others. He went on to have a baby. Michael held the child out of a window ‘for his fans’ to see. This action by Michael frightened onlookers and soon the video was shown around the world. Michael had already lost credibility with millions of fans and this action did not help his reputation at all.
Jackson never mentally recovered from his setbacks. He had financial difficulties at times. He seemed to go deeper and deeper into the world of the strange. Michael continued to have plastic surgery on his nose, eventually leading to the near non-existence of it. Michael was unrecognizable as the same person he had been in years past.
In his final years, Michael decided that it was time to recover his reputation. He now had three children and still suffered greatly from sleep problems. He simply was unable to get any sleep. In the meantime, he was working on a comeback tour. The tour was more like a goodbye tour. It was named ‘This is it’. Jackson and Paul Anka wrote the song when Michael wrote the song when he was in his early twenties. He had even talked about attempting to get his nose rebuilt. It appears that Michael realized that he had gone too far with plastic surgery. The surgeries were meant to make him perfect. Michael was a perfectionist. It took him a long time to realize how dangerous the many surgeries really were for him.
Michael didn’t know it, but his life would end before he ever got to go on that tour. He died while trying to get some sleep. His personal doctor, Conrad Murray, didn’t say no to him. He gave Michael lethal doses of medication that ultimately did kill the fifty year-old pop star. Now the question that remains is whether or not Doctor Murray will be held accountable for the death of one of America’s most famous people.
Michael was certainly on a collision course the latter part of his life. He was on a down spiral most of his adult life. It doesn’t matter what people think of Michael Jackson anymore. That doesn’t appear to be on many people’s minds these days. With Jackson’s death, he took all the answers to the questions people wanted to know for years. What is left is the guilty verdict that his doctor could be facing in the near future. It does not look good for the doctor. A judgment of not guilty for Dr. Conrad Murray could come back as well.
My personal opinion on this matter is that the doctor should be held responsible for Jackson’s death. Too many stars fall into a trap of drug abuse and when a doctor helps them do it, it makes it even worse. It is time for the law to play a role in stopping that type of behavior. It shouldn’t matter how much money you have, doctors have no right to give illegal and dangerous doses of medication that can eventually kill.
My personal opinion of Michael Jackson is that he had very serious issues that should have been addressed by doctors. Those problems led to a great deal of the damaging actions that Jackson was known for in those many years. My opinion is that Jackson has already had to face the ultimate judge and it no longer matters what he did here. We can’t know for sure if any of those things really happened. The only thing we can be sure of is that he was definitely abused as a child and he definitely displayed behavior beyond anything the world had ever seen before.
Michael, the performer, the perfectionist and the bizarre. That bizarre behavior led to some of the greatest performances by a singer in history. It also led to many tabloid headings and chitter chatter among the masses. Did he abuse those children? It is possible. We don’t know for sure though. We will never know for sure that it was true. Each person has drawn their own conclusion on that matter. The thing is, Michael is dead and his doctor may well be held responsible for his death. It is time to let Michael Jackson rest in peace. Whatever else happened, he was tired and he deserves that much respect.