Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH
share
email
font size
options
 
Friday, June 26, 2009
For Jacko, being 'bad' had varying meanings
Michael Jackson holds his son, Prince Michael II, for fans to see on a Berlin hotel balcony in an incident that drew criticism.

The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones

So said Mark Antony in verse written by Shakespeare, but the subject of his eulogy was only a Caesar. The King of Pop is quite a different story.
 
So sure, for weeks, months, likely years, newspaper articles, TV and radio shows, not to mention Internet chatter, will center on all the ills of pop star Michael Jackson, who died unexpectedly Thursday of cardiac arrest.
 
But long after the conversations about his legal challenges, financial hurdles, — and, OK, his weirdness — have ended, Jackson’s music will remain.
 
And his music was only bad in the way Jackson used that word to describe what is unquestionably good. Jackson’s music won’t be buried with him. One can expect the best of it to survive just as long as the best works of even the classical masters.
 
That is not to say the bad about Jackson should be ignored. In his life story, there are many lessons in what a person shouldn’t do.
  
His Neverland Ranch, with its exotic animals and carnival rides, ought to be remembered for all the good he did for sick and indigent children, who were invited there for a free respite from their troubles. Instead, the place will be infamously recalled as the setting that Jackson allegedly used to seduce young boys. He was tried, but not convicted.
 
Even as Jackson urged greater human compassion and racial harmony through songs like “Heal the World” or the more rhythmic “Black and White,” he underwent numerous plastic surgeries and bizarre procedures that made him pale and removed most visible traces of his African American heritage.
 
But there is more than one side to any iconic figure. And in the end, most are remembered for what they did best. Jackson was unquestionably one of the greatest entertainers, if not the greatest, that the world has ever seen. His dancing eclipsed his singing, and the combination was a powerful force.
 
In India, Zimbabwe, and other far-flung places people are crying because the man who wrote “We Are the World” is gone. A scheduled comeback tour to help dissolve Jackson’s massive debt will not occur. All that’s left is the family that created the pop star of all pop stars, and his three children.
 
It’s too bad. Maybe given more time on this earth, Jackson would have finally followed the advice he offered in one of his biggest hits, “Man in the Mirror”:
 
If you wanna make the world a better place,
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
Posted by Harold Jackson @ 1:08 PM  Permalink |
Entertainment Videos
About The Inquirer Editorial Board
Harold Jackson, a winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights movement. He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., in 1975, with a degree in journalism/political science. He has also worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, United Press International, the Birmingham News, and the Baltimore Sun. He was at The Inquirer in the mid-1980s, returned in 1999, and became editorial page editor in 2007.

Paul Davies is the deputy editor of the Editorial Page. His newspaper career has spanned more than 20 years and includes stints at The Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from the University of Delaware and received a masters in journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He was born in Philadelphia and still lives in the city.

Tony Auth began drawing while bedridden for a year and a half at the age of five. He graduated from UCLA in 1965 and worked for six years as a medical illustrator while doing three cartoons a week for various college newspapers. Tony has been happily ensconced as The Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist since 1971. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and has won numerous other awards, including five Overseas Press Club Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished service in Journalism, and the Herblock and Thomas Nast Prizes. Tony is married to Eliza Drake Auth, a painter of realistic landscapes and portraits.

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq.

Kevin Ferris is an assistant editor on the Editorial Board who oversees the Sunday Currents section and writes a weekly column on a wide range of issues. In his 15 years on the board, he’s handled letters to the editor and the Community Voices pages and has been Commentary Page editor. He started with The Inquirer in 1986, and his assignments have ranged from the copy and news desks to the Chester County bureau and the national/foreign desk.

As an editorial writer for The Inquirer for the past two decades, Russell Cooke has written on a wide range of topics covering government, legal, civic and social issues. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was a reporter in the Inquirer’s City Hall bureau.

Editorial writer Dave Boyer joined The Inquirer in 2002. He writes about politics, government, the economy, sports and many other subjects, but draws the line at writing about "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." He has won journalism awards and insists bribery was not involved. A native of Allentown, Boyer graduated from Penn State. He and his wife reside in Center City, where they enjoy strolling and paying the wage tax.

Melanie Burney joined the editorial board in January 2008 after covering education at the Inquirer for eight years. She previously worked at the Associated Press in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Josh Gohlke has been The Inquirer’s op-ed editor since last year, editing the daily commentary page and writing occasional editorials. He came to the Inquirer after eight years at The Record of Bergen County, N.J., first as a reporter covering local and state politics and government and ultimately as the deputy editorial page editor. He also worked as a reporter for several smaller papers in New Jersey and California. Josh was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Philadelphia.

Advertise Here