A Reliable
Voice in the
Community

Volume 6
Issue 16
July 1 - 7, 2009

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Breaking News

When all is said and done

I was listening to a CNN news report online Thursday when the transmission went silent. Then I heard the words I knew were inevitable after learning an hour earlier that one of the greatest entertainers of all time had suffered cardiac arrest:

“We are now receiving reports … Michael Jackson has died …”

Wow. I knew the time would come … one day. But being only a few years younger than him, I thought it would be when we were both retired and in our “later years.” I mean, I grew up with him, watched him achieve success, fight adversity, struggle with choices and make the world — musically — a more interesting place to live.

But Michael Jackson? The “King of Pop,” the singer, dancer, performer extraordinaire? Friend, father, son, brother? The man — who not unlike Princess Diane, another whose death hit me hard — is physically gone forever?

I, like millions of others around the globe, will mourn him for some time. But more importantly, I will be thankful for his impact on the world.

Not for his extraordinary career, in which he sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide, released 13 No.1 singles and became one of only a handful of artists to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not for his 13 Grammy Awards or American Music Awards’ Artist of the Century Award. And not even for his generosity — reportedly having donated more than $300 million of his personal wealth over his lifetime.

What I will remember is how he gave so many people hope when they had lost it. How he inspired young and old through words that seem to transform our collective way of thinking about the world around us. How despite the choices he made in life that some may not agree with, the accusations — true or not — that were hurled at him and his numerous transformations we witnessed during the last four decades, he was a simple man who only wanted to give love and be loved.

When all is said and done, I only want the same.

Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig is an award-winning journalist who resides in Oakland. If you have an individual, organization, issue or other topic that may be of interest to the Globe’s readers, contact her at talk2mfc@yahoo.com. Visit her blog at www.stpminute.blogspot.com.

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