Music Community

Walter:
I agree with the overall content of your post, although could argue that "Drug use and spousal abuse can (perhaps) be forgiven (or at least overlooked) in the context of the cultural and societal roots" is more your opinion than fact and an exercise in making excuses for poor behavior, but won't belabor the point.

I do admit errors when I make them, and my larger point was that you should be able to enunciate yours without being obnoxious to others. Perhaps it's just the online medium which allows people like you to be insulting and arrogant to others who they likely wouldn't to in a face to face discussion. It wouldn't hurt you to learn some courtesy and manners.

for a group of individuals who have harped on the past of african americans and slavery, i find the choice of "we owned him" curious. i think people such as reverend shapton and reverend jackson resented michael jackson's seeming "betrayal" and in his death felt they now could say what they wanted to "put him in his place" when he could not answer it. cowardly. very cowardly. michael jackson belonged to no one group or one race-his music was loved by people of all races. if whites said the same things about, say, celine dion or elvis, the speakers would be denounced as racists and supremecists, so i personally find this whole thing very distasteful.

I'm not saying that Michael Jackson was innocent of charges of pedophilia, but in America, we have a criminal justice system which rules on these matters. In one case, he settled out of court, and in the other, he was acquitted. Perhaps he got away with it, and perhaps his money was able to keep him clean of a conviction, however without a criminal conviction, the simple fact (which you certainly won't like) is that in the eyes of the law, the man is not "a criminal".

Innocent until proven guilty applies even when you feel in your gut that the person is guilty. Charges alone, although they certainly did sully his reputation, are not sufficient enough the call him a criminal.

Disclaimer: I'm no great fan of the man, and although I recognize his talent, have no stake in his guilt or innocence. But I do believe in our criminal justice system as being the final arbiter on these matters.