So I was looking through articles offered at my college and came across this one. I think it's just people that had written into the magazine, but I enjoyed them.
On June 25, the music world lost the most legendary and phenomenal entertainer of all time: Michael Jackson. The native son of Gary, Ind., gave us the most brilliant artistry for four decades ("Fans pay tribute to Michael Jackson at sites around the world," USATODAY.com, Wednesday).
Jackson's works include music, dance, choreography, motion pictures, television, concerts and other forms of art. At the same time, his unique styles converged and gave harmony to the world.
Jackson transformed music at the highest levels. One way he did that was through music videos, taking a song and telling a story in a film. His smash hits Rock With You, Billie Jean, Remember the Time and Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough are memorable.
Thank you, Michael Joseph Jackson, for being an inspiration to all walks of life. Thank you for your selflessness, for teaching others to never give up on their dreams and for being your beautiful self.
I wish you a peaceful journey. You will be missed, but Christ gained an angel.
Regina M. Simmons
Albion, Mich.
More compassion needed
As an advocate for physically and psychologically fragile children who are often labeled "social misfits," I would like to speak up regarding our collective response to the rise, fall and "resurrection" of Michael Jackson in the courtroom of public opinion. I would like to suggest that his story line might have played out differently if the collective "we" had shown more compassion.
As a child of the 1980s, I was stunned to hear about the death of Jackson. I went home in a fog and told my husband, Alan, who was also deeply moved by the news.
Alan suggested I was a hypocrite for being so sad after the way I "vilified" Jackson after the disturbing allegations over the young visitors to his Neverland Ranch (of which he was acquitted). Alan's comments struck me because I did judge Jackson harshly without hard evidence of wrongdoing.
The only thing we know is Jackson was robbed of his childhood first by his father and then by superstardom. I am not the only one willing to forgive his transgressions and focus on his music. Jackson seemed to have it all. We put him on a pedestal.
But when he developed social and psychological issues related to not only the glare of the spotlight, but also an abusive family, many of us condemned him to the world of the weird and lost our admiration for his music.
Today, we are adoring Jackson and his music the way we should have all along. Perhaps if we had treated him with a little more compassion and had been less like the paparazzi that stalked him, his story might have played out differently.
Heidi Kay
Tarpon Springs, Fla.
Jackson's art, beauty
In Michael Jackson's best music and in his electrifying stage moves, he appealed to that desire in all of us to cut loose from restraints and to be truly free.
At the same time, his music and dance moves were so carefully constructed. I believe the reason his spectacular performances have been loved by millions of people worldwide is explained by this principle of aesthetic realism: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves." That philosophy was founded by the great American poet and critic Eli Siegel.
So when Jackson was free and precise, unfettered and sure at once, it was exactly what we want to feel in all the moments of our lives. I wish he could have known this: that the very thing that made his art so fine held the answer to what he wanted in his own life.
Kevin Fennell
New York
(c) USA TODAY, 2009
