Just wanted to provide a link to this article I posted on Piper’s Pages back in Feb 2003 (log in as guest).

Excerpted below.

Let me be perfectly clear: I DO believe that Michael Jackson is a little “off”.

BUT – I do NOT think that he’s crazy, and I do believe that his convictions are strong and he stands by his beliefs.

Central to the controversy surrounding Michael Jackson are two issues: One, his cosmetic surgery (and the reasons for it). Two, his relationship with children, including his own.

I’ll admit – there are things about Jackson’s life and the decisions that have shaped his life that I don’t understand; or, just as importantly, I wouldn’t make myself. What comes to mind are the Berlin hotel incident, the parental obligation to his kids, and his insistence of having unrelated kids spend so much time with him. But, hearing him talk about these same incidents, I have to believe that the man simply sees life from a different perspective than I do. A different perspective, in fact, than most people.

Let’s not kid ourselves people. “Society” is as much a bane as it is a blessing. We have a world filled with rape and murder, greed and adultery, and any number of heinous things. We’ve created a society that’s supposed to benefit most people most of the time – but we all know that no one thing can truly benefit all of the people all of the time. We have differences in opinions regarding the utopian society – democratic, socialistic, communist, dictorial – such that, though we’re all human, we can still disagree on what’s what and we’re willing to bear arms in defiance.

The notion that Michael Jackson’s thinking goes against the grain, really, isn’t a cardinal sin.

Martin Bashir, the man who interviewed Michael Jackson in ABC’s 90 minute special “Life with Michael Jackson”, focused incessantly on the two things I alluded to earlier; but mostly on the issue dealing with Jackson and children. And at one point he (Bashir) said something that I had to agree with – initially. He put himself in the position of Michael Jackson and said, with an allowable degree of certainty, that no person he knows would be comfortable with the idea of him having somebody else’s kids sleeping in his bedroom.

Now let’s be honest people. Perhaps my opinion is skewed because Carribean culture is different than North American culture, but amongst a peoples who routinely make aunts and uncles of those who have no blood relation, I have to think that the line isn’t as clear as Bashir makes it. If trust weren’t a issue (and keep in mind, please, that ideally trust should NOT be an issue) then I would trust my really good, long-time friends (who would also be parents) in addition to my family with matters relating to my children – including sleeping in the same room with them. And for some people, assuming that trust weren’t an issue, even the same bed.

And that’s the crux of it: Trust. Jackson made the statement that it’s not like Jack the Ripper is in the room. All he’s seeking to do is provide an atmosphere of love and caring that this world sorely misses. And I have to agree that the world – indeed, society – isn’t the noble, just and honourable cause that Bashir seemed ready to defend. All you have to do, again, is realize that the human race still hasn’t agreed on what the best version of society is, and within societies people still clamour for certain rights (eg, gay rights), seek to aboloish certain rights (think KKK), or seek to define what’s acceptable and what isn’t in child-rearing (think of the cases involving spanking, as justified by religious beliefs).

The case that Bashir made – the wall on which he was leaning – was a shaky wall indeed.

Michael has done some wierd things, but I believe that the man is honourable, and I believe that he’s being more forward about what he honestly believes in than the vast majority of people in this world.

I also think that he’s astonishingly immature – but what is maturity? If the heart is big enough, does it matter that the brain isn’t so mature?

Really, what’s the answer?

I’m not going to talk about his cosmetic surgery, because I believe that that’s his personal choice and he doesn’t have to justify those choices to anybody but himself. Not sure why he’s lying about it (and I say that because it seems blatantly obvious to me that he’s done more than tweaked his nose a couple of times). But really, there’s nothing worthwhile there; either he’s done it or he hasn’t. Big deal.

In other matters – the ones I touched on – the man is obviously trying, and he’s leading his life by example. And it’s a shame that Trust (always) has to be an issue.