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Michael Jackson and I were exposed to America in the same year 1969.  The Jackson 5 landed their first megahit “I Want You Back”  and I landed in New York City. Michael Jackson with (and without) his brothers provided the soundtrack of my life – and a beautiful and memorable soundtrack it is.

I remember house parties in Brooklyn apartments from Ebbets Field to Vanderveer where the kids entertained the adults by  mimicking the choreography of  “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, and “The Love You Save”. I wasn’t in love with Michael, my heart belonged to Sigmund Esco Jackson the older brother with whom I created an inner fantasy life (if you have never listened to his album, you should run out and get it right now). Michael’s songs  “Ben”, “Got To Be There”, and  “I Wanna Be Where You Are”  took me from puberty into my teenage years.

My 2 oldest children watched “Thriller” every day, over and over and over, we wore the tape out. I think the fact that my son Khalil is a professional dancer and choreographer today is due in large part to Michael and Thriller. My youngest Jalen loved Moonwalker, we wore that tape out too and moved on to the Ones DVD.

So it just makes me want to “Scream”  that the foucs right now is on how strange Michael was, and whether or not he molested  children, and his many surgeries etc etc.. I had a real honest to God childhood, Michael didn’t as evidenced in this song

Have you seen my Childhood?
I’m searching for the world that I come from
‘Cause I’ve been looking around
In the lost and found of my heart…
No one understands me
They view it as such strange eccentricities…
‘Cause I keep kidding around
Like a child, but pardon me…

I learned how to interact with people as I grew older, I don’t think Michael ever learned how to trust adults, or handle money or any of that normal stuff. At the end of the day (I believe) he was a good human being, who left us with some wonderful music – his and the music of those he inspired (Usher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, Neo, Ginuwine, Beyonce and on and on).

Here are just a few  things I admire about Michael Jackson:

1. He made the Guinness Book of World records for basically being  the superstar who gave  to the highest number of  charities in 2000
2. He gave anonymously to parents who lost their children to  gang violence so that they could bury said children
3. He donated 300 million dollars to various charities
4. It was reported that he bought Little Richards catalog (which little Richard did not own, story for another day) and gave it back to him so that Little Richard could benefit from his own royalties – this brought Little Richard to tears
5. Neverland was not just a private amusement park for him, it was also a part of his charitable giving
6. He didn’t steal the Beatles catalog – it was available, he bid on it and won, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono were not interested initially.
7. He  was guilty of random and anonymous acts of kindness
8. He donated money from his tours to orphanages and hospitals all over the world
9. He can beatbox and he legally patented his patented smooth criminal lean (http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/25/michael-jacksons-pat.html) (thank u Chris)

Feel free to leave a comment and add to my list,

I am declaring this a MJ no bash zone – there are plenty of other blogs where you can go talk bad about Michael, this isn’t one of them.

RIP Michael Joseph Jackson – thanks for the memories.