Heal The World/Make It A Better Place/For You And For Me/And The Entire Human Race - Michael Jackson
Let's face it, millions of words will be printed and spoken about Michael Jackson in the months and years to come, about his death, his pyrotechnic life and all the things that make his eccentric kind of notoriety never die.
But what I hope won't get lost in the screech and shuffle likely to come is one fact: Michael Jackson was, by his own admission, both a victim and survivor of a childhood weighted in violence.
There is much research to show how such trauma invades the mind and body with pain and shame. Physical, verbal, emotional abuse lives on. Jackson happened to have the grace and talent to rise above it and, in the process, alter the world. But millions upon millions of others die anonymously of such trauma with drugs, suicide, and other destroyed lives.
Jackson did not make himself a poster child, as so many celebrities do; but the singer was clear that he bore deep scars from his childhood traumas. Tragically, the anodyne eluded him.
[Since Michael Jackson was also the survivor of an exploitative childhood which turned him into a global cash cow -- not just for fame but for the wealth of so many others who were without talent -- it gave him a double harsh burden to carry.]
My hope in the wake of his sudden if not completely shocking death: that people learn to speak out more and more about the violence in their past, whatever it may be.
Violence Unsilenced is one website that gives trauma survivors a safe place to give voice to their silent anguish. It's a relatively new site, and according to the woman who started it the stories are pouring in: she already has a 6-month back-up. The point in speaking up is not to point fingers (which many people fear), but to have your damaged voice heard. Then the real healing can begin.
Send the site to someone you know who may benefit; urge them to speak up and get help. Violence, control, fear and abuse thrive in silence. Merely aging doesn't make this pain diminish. In fact, it often gets stronger and louder.
Yes, I was a fan -- of Jackson's music, his persona, his life -- the same as endless others. No one, save Elvis and The Beatles, wrangled the world's music-icon imagination as he did and Jackson did it with all global races for four decades of his five-decade life. That side of him is solid in cement.
But as the media shifts to things more lurid and sensational, I think that Michael, himself, would now want to help free others who experienced his brand of childhood pain, even if it's something he ultimately could not do for himself. Real freedom is possible from these kinds of experiences, but it takes hard work, focused energy and ultimately time; something Michael Jackson no longer has.
Janet Kinosian is a 25-year print journalist who has reported on Entertainment for the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The New York Times Syndicate and People Magazine. She provides Media Consulting at www.janetkinosian.com.
Follow Janet Kinosian on Twitter: www.twitter.com/STWBYF4
You know NOTHING of Michael Jackson's childhood but what some editor at Doubleday wanted you to know.
Question - how familiar are you with Jackie Jackson's self-titled debut album from 1973? Quote me a few lyrics from, say, "Do I Owe" - then maybe I'd think you know what you're talking about.
But darkness, doesn"t like beauty to shine. It detracts so much from what it is trying to do. Create dark human less souls of us all. To replace the radiance that was born within all of us, by God. You spoke of nothing, but love and peace. Your light through your words, and music shone so bright. You"ve brought so much too so many, but only sought pure love for yourself. Your sensitivity brought ridicule. When all you wished most of all was to be embraced and understood.
I think what personally stood out to me most of all; was your tender nature. Envy in other people mistook that for weakness, when in reality it is strength. The force of who you were was so strong. Many people wish to have that, but could never achieve it.
We are all afforded different opportunities in life. Instead of being envious, they should have rejoiced with you, in your life.
Thank you.
Peace
I know so well the lonliness and isolation endured by Michael and how difficult it is for people to comprehend why people like us, do what we do and how we go about doing it. Abuse creates shame and shame creates a wall around the heart and soul of person who experiences it. Michael was an artist; a sensitive extraordinarily gifted human being. He had his musical face and then there was his soul face, as I like to call it. It was a face that was disfigured, distorted and grotesque, made so by his inability to connect with others, other than through his music and dance. The human heart and soul cries out for affirmation, acceptance and love. To be loved for merely being alive is to be celebrated and cherished. Michael didn't have that, as I don't have it. In the photos of him and his children released by his friend in Florida, I see softness and light in Michael's eyes. They are beautiful pictures and a testament to the resilience of the spirit.
I was bullied my entire childhood, and then abused(my mom used to beat me a lot, during her periods of depression and what not) at home, and although I'm now a 38 year-old woman, the scars are still there. I'm a strong woman, nonetheless, but the insecurities of feeling ugly, will follow me my entire life, even when people tell me that I'm beautiful, etc. I have long watched Michael jackson sink deeper and deeper into this self-loathing, self-altering, self-escaping spiral of his, and kept praying that he would one day wake up from all of that self-destruction, and start to heal, but alas it seems he had few around him, who were honest, sensitive and genuine enough to want to help him, and that he, in turn, was in deep denial, and pushed these few people out of his life, periodically.
We can't do much, for thos who suffer in silence and anonimity, but we can do something, and so I'll try to do my part and tell people about Violence Unsilenced, on both My Space and Facebook. I hope others will do the same.
God bless,
Emily
such as judgment and self preservation. It goes so deep when it comes from a parent that is
is almost impossible to overcome. MJ's passing this way seems to have struck a deep chord
with many people, which just makes the tragedy of it all the more poignant, when you realize
how many other people have also suffered this way. I hope that all burdens have been lifted
from Michael's spirit and that he is dancing in the light fantastic now.