The Chamber Of Fire......

            In 1984, Michael Jackson was in the process of making the Pepsi commercial with his brothers. He was onstage dancing an all of the sudden, his hair caught on fire from the firework special effects that went terribly wrong. Michael made a settlement with Pepsi for 1.5 million dollars. Michael was kind enough to donate that money to a hospital for burned victims called the Brotman Medical Center. The center is now called the Michael Jackson Burn Center in his honor. Since Michael knew what it was like to suffer from burns, In 1986 he decided to visit a burn center. He was in the process of donating a Hyperbaric Chamber to a hospital. Michael decided that he wanted to get into it to see what it would feel like. Then the tabloids took a picture of Michael while he was in there trying it out, and attached a story to it saying that he slept in a Hyperbaric Chamber every night so that he could live for 150 years.

        When In reality he had purchased the chamber for a hospital and he just decided to check it out and to see how it would feel to be inside. Michael sleeps in a bed!! I think it is crazy how the media can totally turn stories around. Michael was doing a good thing that day by making a donation and yet it was turned into a tabloid rumor that would last as one of the "bizarre" things he has done. What is so bizarre about trying out a piece of burn equipment, when Michael himself was a burn victim? Of course he would be interested to see what others that have gone through the same situation as him; has to use to recover from painful burns. In the picture above you can see Michael visiting a burn patient and brightening up his day. This was what Michael was all about, bringing love, joy and giving to others who need it. In the video below you can further hear Michael discuss the Hyperbaric Chamber incident and how it was just another ridiculous rumor.

The Spirit Of Religion......

            Michael Jackson was raised a Jehovah's Witness growing up. He attended services about 5 times a week with his family.  Michael felt a lot of pressure from his religion. When he was in school, he wasn't allowed to associate with any one that wasn't a Jehovah's Witness, so that made it hard for him to make friends. He did make a friend with a girl named Darles, but once she became disfellowshipped; Michael was no longer able to speak to her. It made Michael very sad and he missed her a lot. The Jehovah Witness's thought that Michael  wasn't being conservative enough with the way he would dress or with the dance moves that he would do.

Michael tried his best to make the church happy. After he released  the " Thriller"  video he had to put up a disclaimer in the beginning of the video. The church thought that his video had occult images in it, so Michael had to say that the video didn't express his religious beliefs. Michael tried his hardest to follow the rules of his church until one day when his sister Latoya stopped going to the Jehovah meetings. She got dis-fellowshipped from the church and they told Michael that he could no longer speak to Latoya because she wasn't a Jehovah's witness. This devastated Michael so much and he decided that he would continue speaking to Latoya and he left the Jehovah witness church for good in 1987.

          Michael still always believed in God and Jesus and would always voice that to people and in interviews. Michael was able to celebrate his first Christmas with his good friend Elizabeth Taylor. Michael said he felt guilty while he was opening presents because he had always been raised not to ever celebrate Christmas or birthdays. He loved his presents and received a lot of supersoakers!! I can not say for sure what religion Michael was in the end, but I have read in interviews from some of Michael's friends that he died a Christian. There was no evidence or proof that he was Muslim, which is highly questioned today. I have a video below of Michael's first Christmas for all of you to enjoy!!

A Father's Hidden Emotions......

      Michael has stated many times that he was afraid of his father Joseph. Michael has said in an interview "I am scared of my father to this day. My father walked in the room -- and God knows I am telling the truth -- I have fainted in his presence many times. I have fainted once to be honest. I have thrown up in his presence because when he comes in the room and this aura comes and my stomach starts hurting and I know I am in trouble". All Michael wanted was a father who showed him love. Joseph had a hard time showing affection, he never really told Michael he loved him or comforted him. Michael did say that he had some childhood memories that proves to him that Joseph did love him.  

         When he was 4 years old there was a carnival and Joe picked him up and put him on a pony. It was a small gesture that meant a lot to Michael and displayed Josephs love. That one moment made Michael feel good and let him know that he was loved. When MJ was a kid he had a real sweet tooth for glazed doughnuts, so every 3 weeks there was a bag of glazed doughnuts on the table, MJ said it was like Santa Clause secretly leaving presents at night. Joseph was afraid of showing human emotion and didn't know how to deal with it; which is why he didn't want Michael to see him getting the doughnuts for him.

                Joseph had a hard upbringing as well. He grew up in a poor family in the south and his own father had  a hard time showing affection and Joseph received beatings also. Joseph handled his own abuse differently than Michael obviously but I feel that we should try to see some things from Joe's perspective based on the childhood that he had and show him more compassion. I read posts about Joseph and people call him all sorts of terrible names and they make him out to be evil, but he is not. I was able to meet him and he was very nice to me. I heard Joseph say in an interview that he did grieve and cry when he found out MJ had passed but he did it in private because he didn't want anyone to see.

                That is also a sign that he has a hard time showing emotions like MJ said, but it doesn't mean that Joseph doesn't feel emotions. In the past years Michael has said that Joe has been trying harder to become closer to MJ and have more of a father-son relationship. Michael said that he knew that Joe loved him, even though he didn't show it in a traditional way. Michael also said in an interview that "Joseph is very different now, and that time and age has changed him. He sees his grandchildren and he wants to be a better father. It is almost like the ship has sailed its course and it is so hard for me to accept this other guy that is not the guy I was raised with. I just wished he had learned that earlier.”

                Michael knew Joseph pushed him and his siblings so hard to save them from a life of poverty and indignity; he pushed them because he loved them. He never wanted anybody to look down on his children. I'm not defending everything Joseph did to Michael but I wanted you guys to have a better understanding of why he did them. Michael said he is a lot like his father in many ways. He is strong, courageous, confident and has many important values instilled in him. So if you love every bit of Michael then that means you could love a little bit of Joseph.

Don't Just Leave It Alone.......

            We all know that problems won't go away if we don’t try to fix them. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the movie This Is It, Michael says " Oh they'll fix it, they'll, they who? It starts with us or it will never get done.” That is the purpose of this post today as well as my whole blog. Some people have been telling me to just ignore the MJ haters and that I'm wasting my time; but what if people had said things like that to Martin Luther King Jr, Peta and other activists? How is anything ever going to change if we just leave it alone?  Who knows where we would be today without those activists making the differences that they have. So I won't stop fighting. I'm a MJ fan but I also just love people and I am not ok with him or anyone else being falsely accused of things they didn’t do and slandered for being different than others. The slander is still going on even after his death. Michael's legacy was very important to him, we all know this.

        He would not want the words pedophile, wacko jacko, or any of those other names and lies attached to him and his legacy and his fans shouldn't want that either. We can't change every ones mind but if we don’t try to properly educate people of the truth; then the truth will never be out there for people to discover if they ever wanted to. Within informing them of the truth we can also leave messages of things that were important to Michael such as donating to charities, helping sick children and others and the messages of god. So that way we are not only bringing awareness to Michael but awareness to all the things that would make this world a better place. That is what Michael was about, and those things were very important to him. If you personally don't want to take the time or energy to clear Michael's name then that is ok, but I don't think we should be telling each other to not even try at all. If you never try to make a change, then there will never be a change.

The Neverland Escape......

           Never land was a place where Michael could be himself and not have to hide. He could be free of the judgement, prejudice, hate, jealousy and the dishonesty that were outside of those gates. Never land allowed him to be in a place purely filled with love, hope and magic. In Never land Michael had his animals which he said he could relate to better than people. He also had his train, candy, movie theatre, rides and trees to climb but most importantly he had some privacy. Since Michael couldn't experience any of these things outside without being mobbed he built Never land to make up for that. It was a place where he could live out the childhood he was never able to have. Never land is a place where you can escape and leave all of your troubles behind and bring out and discover the inner child that is inside all of us. It is also a place where under privileged children and children who are sick with cancer or other illnesses went to be able to have a normal childhood for a day and experience things that they never had before.
           He would allow bus loads of children to come there and do whatever they liked. Michael was a big fan of Peter Pan and other Disney characters. He had many models of them through out Never land. I believe it was because of his love of people but also because it allowed him to be around people without them wanting something in return .judging him or screaming because they are so excited to see him. It was a way for him to experience what it like to be around people and just be normal. Even though the mannequins and statues obviously can't talk, I think it was just comforting for Michael to have their presence there. He also had beautiful paintings done of himself. I was able to meet Michael's personal artist David Nordahl. He has done so many famous paintings of Michael, which you can see a lot of them through out the documentary "Living with Michael" and in other interviews. You can see some of the videos giving you a tour of Never land and Michael having fun there.