Johnny Simmons

Why does some one have to die?
Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more... the poet will die, the visionary The Hours


A fan of Michael writes...
So the news has reached us all by now, Michael Jackson, the king of pop, the superstar, the icon, the idol has left us. Katharine Hepburn once said, Wouldn't it be great if people could get to live as suddenly and as often as the die?, and Michael’s death was sudden. Death is sudden, whether if one comes to it through sickness or surprise. Michael was a famous recluse so we rarely heard a word about him. He seemed like one of those stars who would stay in his lair and outlive us all. I got the news of Michael’s death around 5:00 yesterday [my time]. I thought this was a joke. I refused to believe it, since the link I was directed to said the story was now in development. Eventually I realised that it was all but through and called almost everyone I knew. It wasn’t until later about 9:00 that I even turned on the television. They were showing his music. Then NBC started showing Dateline on Michael Jackson. In reflecting on Michael’s death I didn’t think of many things, but Dateline had to rehash all the old horrors – especially that of his recent trial for child molestation. I was completely dismayed. The thing is, I’m not one of this people who thinks at funerals and wakes you should sugar coat everything, but I’m also not one of this people who thinks that you should dissect the lives of the dead…which is exactly what I think we are doing right now.

It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, who his money goes to, whether or not he was social – people can be so callous. We used to learn in Law Class that life was sacrosanct – it isn’t. People have no respect for the living and even less for the dead. The vultures come to feast as they have another big headline – The Death of an Idol. What makes me even more disheartened is that so many people who never reached out to Michael in his time of need, who hid behind a shroud of distrust and malice are now mourning, and not just mourning – mourning publicly. I don’t know the man, but I think Michael died of sadness and disappointment. Yes, there were fans that supported him [like me] through his trials, the literal and the symbolic; but so many condemned him, without proof. We don’t know what happened, and I couldn’t care less. We don’t know what happened wherever, whenever. What we do know is that there is no person of celebrity left alive, and few have lived. We were blessed to live in the time of Michael. Let’s remember his music, his life was his. Let us learn from his death, and let us remember him, forever.