Why no public viewing?

[Bee Bee]

In case Michael is dead, do you think it was right of the Jacksons to have a closed casket?

Would you have felt it your duty to show Michael to the world one last time, so they could say goodbye and grasp what happened, or would you have wanted to protect his "privacy", not letting the world see, meaning the fans and even other people close to Michael who didn't get to attend the private ceremony as well.

I have to say, at first I didn't see any reason or excuse for a closed casket. I felt and I basically still feel completely punked when I think about the way Michael's supposed death was handled. I know, they have a right to privacy, and if they wanted to protect Michael, that's wonderful. But it's still bugging me. Because, first of all, we're talking about the Jacksons. Quite a few of those family members don't miss a chance when it comes to publicity, they didn't think it was wrong to use Michael's death for their own publicity in various ways and even dragged Michael's children into the limelight. They didn't care about his rights as a child to even have a childhood, let alone privacy, being rushed from show to show to the recording studio and around the world. If they decided to have a closed casket out of decency and respect for Michael, I just don't think it fits them. And I know that sounds hard, but I mean it.

As a fan and someone who loves and cares about Michael from a distance, I felt completely left out and disrespected. If they had the decency to care about Michael's privacy, when he's DEAD, they forgot the rest of the world, the ones who cared for him who were left completely blind, with a million questions in their heads, for God's sake, we didn't even get to see him. Instead we got to see crappy, sentimental performances, were those of any help whatsoever? We got to see Michael's beautiful children, even got to see Paris, who didn't even cry a TEAR on that stage, and we were left with the uttermost confusion. Well, I was.

If Michael is dead, I think what they did is, they took the chance to say goodbye away from me, the chance to grieve, away from anyone who feels this way. I don't know about other people, but it's Michael Jackson, the most famous person in the world, I can't just believe he's dead because they say so, I need to see it. I couldn't deal with it any other way. It all looks like a bad, bad joke to me. You have paparazzi photos of celebs in underwear, where is one photo or anything of Michael, except for that crappy ambulance pic? We have nothing. And I just can't believe it. UCLA, nothing coming from them, no eyewitnesses speaking out, no photos, no nothing. It's much harder than that to protect the privacy of MICHAEL JACKSON. I just feel there would be more... if he's dead. Which brings us back to why I'm here. But the topic was... if he's dead, do you think it was right to have a closed casket?

I know this all sounds rather melodramatic, and I apologize, I was in a rather bad mood, but I'll be better soon.

[*Mo*]

In case Michael is dead, do you think it was right of the Jacksons to have a closed casket?

Would you have felt it your duty to show Michael to the world one last time, so they could say goodbye and grasp what happened, or would you have wanted to protect his "privacy", not letting the world see, meaning the fans and even other people close to Michael who didn't get to attend the private ceremony as well.

[...]

As a fan and someone who loves and cares about Michael from a distance, I felt completely left out and disrespected. [...]

If Michael is dead, I think what they did is, they took the chance to say goodbye away from me, the chance to grieve, away from anyone who feels this way. [...] But the topic was... if he's dead, do you think it was right to have a closed casket?

No matter who dies, the family always has the right to have a close casket, even if the person who died is a celebrity with a large fan base.  Being a fan of someone doesn't mean the family of your idol owes you anything, nor that you're entitled to anything.  I find it quite disrespectful that fans demand seeing the dead body of their idol.

In case he would indeed have died on 06/25/2009 - they gave you a memorial, and that in my opinion is exactly what fans are 'entitled' to.

I'm sending you positive energy, and hope you will feel better soon...

[mdc]

While I agree that it is the family's choice and that I am entitled to nothing more than I got, I sympathize with and completely understand Bee Bee's feelings on the matter. Although it would be hard under any circumstances to let MJ go, an open casket would have given closure to a lot of MJ fans and I do kind of feel we were cheated out of that closure. Whether it's right or wrong, unless he is alive and comes back, I will always feel that way. JMO

[RK]

Hi BeeBee, hope you're feeling better. You are just having one of those days.  I know what you are saying about the "confusion" you felt after the memorial cause I felt like that too. I believe that was our intuition telling us something wasn't right about what we were witnessing.  It has been a long 15 months but hey we've come too far to quit now. We are all in this together. The best is yet to come.

[mjboogie]

Yeah, on the one hand as Mo stated that family is entitled to their privacy. I mean if we look back over MJ's life he was Deprived of privacy in so many aspects of his life, maybe the family just felt that they owed it to him to have a closed casket.

For me it is more like "I will believe MJ is dead when I see it" and in my opinion, me seeing him for that last time would DEFINITLEY given me closure, and I would still have that closure instead of being on this investigative website for the past 15 months, and i have been here from day one (without any breaks btw)

So........could kinda look  at the close casket issue from different ways u know?
I am not mad at the Jacksons because when I think of how Big a celebrity MJ was/is......well ....MJ deserves his privacy. I  just keep saying to myself MJ deserves his privacy.   But it still does not give that CLOSURE that sooooo many of us are seeking.

[paula-c]

Bee Bee If you want to feel mas encouraged it looks at the photos of The Toya in the brief, posing in a "very "sexy" way for the photographer to only a few days of the "death" of his brother, and also it looks at the imgenes of the burial, the family and the children do not show any pain 8-)

[AirSlide]

Katherine said that MJ's face was messed up really bad, that's why they had a closed casket. Well, that's what I read somewhere.

[paula-c]

Katherine said that ?,.... and La Toya said he looked "fabulous" :lol:

[Jennie]

I agree with everyone else here about the privacy thing and the family' right to a closed casket and they really dont owe us nothing. However I do get what Beebee is saying about why she is kinda confused with what went down with the whole memorial thing.  IMO It is contradictory to finally give Michael one private moment by having a closed casket but then to expose the children after Michael went to such length to keep their faces from paparazzi since day 1. I dont expect they would have deprived the children from the memorial however they didn't need to be identified either, not sure how else they could've done this but where there's a will there's a way.

[hesouttamylife]

...and Karen Faye said she did his makeup. :lol:   Makeup on a 2 plus month old corpse :roll:    Get real.

[SoldierofLOVE]

...and Karen Faye said she did his makeup. :lol:   Makeup on a 2 plus month old corpse :roll:    Get real.

I'll say!

When anyone asks me to summarize my thoughts about MJ and the death hoax, I say the following:  "No Body, No Arrest, No Death."  Period.

And, not only did KF do the make-up but she did the make-up for over SIX hours.  She just couldn't make that face look enough like MJ's -- but she tried, bless her heart.  :mrgreen:

L.O.V.E. (Love, Observe, Verify, Evolve.)

Take care everyone!

[Red_Rose]

Katherine said that MJ's face was messed up really bad, that's why they had a closed casket. Well, that's what I read somewhere.

I thought Katherine didn't see his body :?

[momof3kids]

I understand why some feel like they need to see a body for closure, however, if MJ is really dead I completely agree with the family for having a closet casket service.  Back when I believed him to to have passed away, I was so scared that they were going to have an open casket and I was hoping that they wouldn't.  The reason being this....Can you imagine having every magazine in the checkout counter, every T.V news channel and every newpaper having photos of a dead Michael Jackson?  I think that would be horrible. Some of those magazines, TV channels and newspaper have been very disrespectful in the past and I would hate to read and hear the headlines.  This is especially true if his face was a little messed up (like Katherine may have said)  Some people are VERY rude and have talked bad about his face in life.....in death I'm sure it'd be worse.   IF MJ is dead (which I don't believe) I think the family might have considered this.

[mjsgirl89]

In case Michael is dead, do you think it was right of the Jacksons to have a closed casket?

Would you have felt it your duty to show Michael to the world one last time, so they could say goodbye and grasp what happened, or would you have wanted to protect his "privacy", not letting the world see, meaning the fans and even other people close to Michael who didn't get to attend the private ceremony as well.

[...]

As a fan and someone who loves and cares about Michael from a distance, I felt completely left out and disrespected. [...]

If Michael is dead, I think what they did is, they took the chance to say goodbye away from me, the chance to grieve, away from anyone who feels this way. [...] But the topic was... if he's dead, do you think it was right to have a closed casket?

No matter who dies, the family always has the right to have a close casket, even if the person who died is a celebrity with a large fan base.  Being a fan of someone doesn't mean the family of your idol owes you anything, nor that you're entitled to anything.  I find it quite disrespectful that fans demand seeing the dead body of their idol.

In case he would indeed have died on 06/25/2009 - they gave you a memorial, and that in my opinion is exactly what fans are 'entitled' to.

I'm sending you positive energy, and hope you will feel better soon...

I agree with Mo 100%...Michale or the fam do not owe us anything...imo

[suspicious mind]

i love how this thread went from if he really died to reminding us of all of the contradictions that lead us to the thought that it's a lie.