On Suffering, Compassion and Healing the World
"My goal is to change the world…and to change the world’s consciousness about children, about ecology and the planet, to make it a better place for everybody, starting with the children. That’s the future, really. And, I’ll stick with it forever, until it is done"
Michael Jackson
"One can feel the urge, the need to give, coming from within him. He is such a pure and true person. … It’s my deepest, most heartfelt conviction that Michael Jackson is a good person, a fine young man with an incredible burden - responsibility - to carry on his shoulders."
Marcel Marceau, mime
"Michael had the weight of the world on his shoulders, no one expected him to carry it on his own."
Latoya Jackson, Michael´s sister
"I met Michael more than 20 years ago; I went to teach him meditation at Neverland. He was very shy, very introverted, but very curious about consciousness and spirituality. You know, while the world called him weird, he wondered why the world was so weird. He'd ask me, Why do people go to war? Why is there genocide? What's happening in Sudan? Why have we killed the environment? Why is there racism and bigotry and hatred and prejudice? We talked about starving children in Mumbai, and he would start to cry. Or we'd start to talk about the trophy-hunting in Canada of the grizzly bear, and he would start to cry. In his mind, the world was psychotic."
“If you really understood Michael, he was the most innocent, loving, compassionate human being that you could imagine. He was too gentle for this world. The trial really traumatized him, and hurt him and made him even more frail than he was.”
Deepak Chopra, spiritual author
"He was the most inspirational person in my life. His one dream was to cure all the sick children in the world. And when I'd say, 'Isn't that impossible?' Michael would just start to cry. He was very emotional about things that moved him. I guess you'd have to say he was a pure innocent in a world that wasn't so innocent anymore."
Brett Ratner, filmmaker and music video director
"Michael was just really an unbelievable person. He was just misunderstood by so many people.
He was an incredible, incredibly, incredibly sensitive person. He was just really sensitive to people. Some of the guys that worked with him, one of the things that we can take away from MJ was just the fact that, you know in the short time we was around him, was just the fact that he really wanted people to be treated right.
Every single time we would come out and leave the house, if you can imagine, there's fans outside of his house every single, solitary day. He would always roll his window down. He would always stop and talk to people, these fans, every single time, to some point where I felt it could be detrimental to his safety. He's very serious, adamant and gracious to his fans.
One of Michael Jackson's recent bodyguards, Big E, speaks in a radio interview about working with Michael
“The first time the J-5 did a benefit at a children’s hospital, Michael came home and cried all night at the memory of all those sick children lying in beds, some not even able to move their hands to clap. That is when he became actively involved in communicating with these kids. He corresponds with youngsters his own age in hospital all over the country. These are not letters dictated to a secretary by a superstar, but letters written in Michael’s own hand during breaks in recording or rehearsing or even in school.”
Note about young Michael Jackson from an old magazine (I don´t have those letters :-(
“I tried to teach Michael about the world through documentaries. One day, Michael and I watched a film about the less fortunate children in Africa. The state of their lives brought us to tears. Michael, sympathetic at the age of 14, turned to me and said, ‘One day, mom, I’m going to do something about it’.
Many years later, he did. Michael surprised me on a trip to New York. We went to the airport hangar where I witnessed boxes of food, goods and emergency supplies being loaded onto several planes lined up on the runway. I was proud to know that my son followed his words”.
Katherine Jackson in her book ‘My Family, The Jacksons’
“The first time the J-5 did a benefit at a children’s hospital, Michael came home and cried all night at the memory of all those sick children lying in beds, some not even able to move their hands to clap. That is when he became actively involved in communicating with these kids. He corresponds with youngsters his own age in hospital all over the country. These are not letters dictated to a secretary by a superstar, but letters written in Michael’s own hand during breaks in recording or rehearsing or even in school.”
Note about young Michael Jackson from an old magazine
"It was my very first Michael Jackson Concert that I went backstage. It was cold out and I didn't have a jacket. As i walked in to the back part of the stage Michael looked at me in an odd way and said "its kinda cold out buddy" and said "here take my jacket" and i cherish it everyday. R.I.P MJ"
Paris, a fan via You Tube
Kenny Ortega talks about Michael Jackson and his dedication to see Orphanages:
"No one talks about when he did the Victory tour. I remember as a kid Michael being on tour with the Victory tour right? And every night on the news they would announce that Michael Jackson donated his money from every city that he did, he donated it to a new charity. He donated his money from the Victory tour to charities. I thought that was amazing. I’m like, wow! This guys donating millions of dollars every night to a new charity. Then he would stop in every city and every city he would stop at a hospital and visit kids that were burned, ill or whatever. He took the time to do all that.”
Cory Rooney, who worked with Michael at Sony/Epic
"I asked him, “Michael, how can you do that? How can you spend the time with these children who are dying and then go from that, on stage and give that kind of performance?” He said, “How could I not? If these children want to see me, I know I’m not important, but Michael Jackson the superstar is, and if I can make a child live an extra minute or an hour or a day or a month, then wouldn’t that be worth it?” Michael was always that way. If he would get a call from somebody and a child was dying, he would get on a plane and go and he would tell them, I’m going to be back in 2 weeks to see you,’ and alot of the times he extended little kids’ lives that way. It gave them something to look forward to down the line. You have to admire something like that."
David Nordahl, artist (www.reflectionsonthedance.com)
"Michael Jackson's not afraid to look into the worst suffering and find the smallest part that's positive and beautiful."
Frank Dileo
"My dear mother instilled in me very young to give back, and as I grew in God I knew what I had to do as a believer in Christ. I hate to see suffering, I hate to see people in need, and I feel God gave me a gift, and I have to use it responsibly by giving back, and I’ll do it until I have pennies left or the good Lord ...calls me home."...
Michael Jackson (2008)
"I truly care about children, and about the future for our children. I'm a little frightened about what the future is going to bring. I truly, truly love them and care about them. I will always help them. When I go on tour, I visit hospitals, terminally ill children. At my ranch at Neverland, we have many terminally ill children as our guests. We do this every few weeks. You do it because you truly love them and you care."
Michael Jackson
“With every breath he took Michael inhaled the world´s suffering and exhaled pure love.”
Rev. June Gatlin
"With just a little love and a little caring, I have seen kids totally turn around. Where you can't find any cancer at all anymore in their body. I've done it a lot of times. I'm not trying to say I'm Jesus Christ. We should just give a little more attention to the power of love and caring and faith and prayer."
Michael Jackson in the Martin Bashir outtakes
“He was a man of power, of positive power that brought people together. He brought people of all walks of life, all nationalities, friends and foes alike. He was healing in spirit because he healed a lot of people with his music and with his spirit. Being in his presence, when he visited hospitals, the children would be miraculously healed.”
Jonathan Moffet, MJ´s drummer
"He genuinely wanted to meet and cheer children up who were less privileged. He also visited children who were in the hospital. Just his appearance would cheer them up. Sometimes, he took off his jacket and gave it away."
John Isaac talks about Michael Jackson
"My fondest memory here was one night (when) we had a houseful of bald-headed children. They all had cancer. And one little boy turned to me and said, ´This is the best day of my life.´ You had to just hold back the tears."
Michael Jackson, Who Weekly Magazine, 1993
"Every three weeks we have terminally ill children that come to…[the house, from charitable organizations such as Make A Wish Foundation, Dream Street, Starlight etc]...., and these are sick children, children with cancer. And I entertain them. And they come here to enjoy themselves. ... It brings out the child that lives in everybody.... I love rides and things like that and I share it with the children."
"....I love to do things for children and I try to imitate Jesus. And no, I am not saying I am Jesus, I'm not saying that.... I'm trying to imitate Jesus in the fact that he said to be like children, to love children, to be as pure as children, and to make yourself as innocent and to see the world through eyes of wonderment and the whole magical quality of it all and I love that. And we'll have like a hundred bald-headed children, they all have cancer, and they're all running around. And they are enjoying themselves and it makes me cry happy tears that I was able to do this for them, you know. (It) makes me so pleased inside."
"... We have children that come who are fed intravenously...they are very sick, bedridden. They can't sit up and these beds, they are hospital beds, you push a button, you go up or you go down and they are able to watch. We have a magic show, we show the current films, there's cartoons, anything so that they can escape to that world of magic that they don't have a chance to experience, the world I was deprived of when I was little."
Michael Jackson, TV Interview with Oprah Winfrey, 1993
SB: ...If you were shown a lot of love as a child, maybe you wouldn´t need the world to love you and you wouldn´t be the superstar. Would you be prepared to give it up in order to be more loved as a child?
MJ: No. I would never give it up. That´s my job. I really believe it and feel it...
SB: ...That God has chosen you, given you this special...
MJ: I really believe that. If could come to see of the faces around the world and people say, "Thank you, thank you for saving me and my children. Can I touch you?" and then they start crying. It´s like healing. We are given this for a reason... to help people.
SB: (...) Do you feel that God gave you a certain healing power?
MJ: Yes.
SB: So when you speak to Gavin you are healing him, not just speaking to him?
MJ: I know I am healing him, and I have seen children just shower me with love. And they want just to touch me and hug me and hold on and cry and not let go. They don´t even know me. You´ll see sometime when you hang out, or we´ll be in an open place, and mothers pick up their babies and put them into my arms. "Touch my baby, touch my baby, hold them." It is not hero worship like religions try to say, like idol worship.
"The love this man has on his face when he is with these special children is unbelievable. He is one of the kindest and most gentle men I have ever met!
One evening, we were watching TV and Travis hadn´t eaten for a couple of days. We came across the American Music Awards and Michael Jackson. Travis sat up and wanted to eat. He said I love Michael Jackson, mama!"
Mother of 5 year old Travis Thomas, who was suffering from cystic fibrosis. (Because of Make A Wish Foundation, Thomas, his family and twenty other seriously ill children spent a weekend in Neverland in 1995.)
"I love them so much. They´re my children, too. I remember we were in Australia and we were in this children-with-cancer ward and I started giving out toys. And I´ll never forget this one boy who was like eleven and when I got to his bed he said: ´It´s amazing how just seeing you I feel so much better. I really do.´ I said: ´Well, that´s so sweet.´ That´s what he said and I have never forgotten it. It´s amazing and that´s what we are supposed to do."
MIchael Jackson
'In every single city the tour played, Michael Jackson visited a hospital, and bought a new piece of equipment for that hospital. There was a kid who was dying in a hospital (during the Bad Tour) in the city where the tour happened to be playing. Michael happened to have been at that particular hospital doing what he always did — for LOVE. The extremely ill child wanted to meet Michael, and Michael went to the child, talked to him; and …”the child perked up. It was amazing. I really couldn’t take it. I went off — over in a corner, and cried. And Michael came over to me and put his arm around me and said, ‘You have to understand Frank. This is OUR JOB…….not getting up on stage and singing and dancing. Our job is making people feel good.’ “
"I believe that the biggest success of my brother's life was making others happy. If someone had to be operated on or if there was a family starving, he was able to pay the expenses for a year.
He felt his real satisfaction there - seeing a person sad and making him happy. These were the achievements that were close to him and went beyond music ". ¨
Tito Jackson
"We all have to give, and we all have to do what we can to help end the needless suffering in the world."
"I meet children like that all the time when we visit the hospitals. The doctors and nurse ask them, "You can go anywhere you want or do or see anything – what do you want?" And these kids request to meet the Jacksons. They say "You’ve got to meet this girl, she’s going to die tomorrow and ever since she’s been out of surgery she’s been calling your name." And, God, I just feel so wonderful to be a part of somebody’s ultimate dream. All my lifetime of work is rewarded."
"I tell the kids "I’ll see you next year", and sometimes the thought that I’ll be back next year makes them hang on. That’s happened several times. People told me this girl was about to die, but I kept running into her three years in a row – and the fourth year she died. The doctors couldn’t do anything, and for me to come in and help give her the gift of life really makes me feel good."
"Some people are chosen to do these things. These children will be drowsy, but Danny Kaye [a late American award-winning actor, singer and comedian] will come in and tell stories and make faces, and these kids will become so cheerful. Bill Cosby [an American comedian, actor and activist] is known for his ways with children, too. Nurses and doctors are totally amazed at the power of these people)."
"I get a taste of poverty, too. When I go to a country – like in the Phillippines and in Trinidad and in Africa – I really get out and go to the poor sections and talk to the people. I sit in their little huts, their cardboard houses, and I make myself at home. I think it’s important to know how different people feel, especially in my field of endeavor."
Michael Jackson
"Life is too precious and too short not to reach out and touch the people we can.
If I were living for no other reason than to help and please kids, that would be enough for me. They're amazing people.
I spend a lot of free time when I'm traveling, visiting children's hospitals.
It makes me so happy to be able to brighten those kids' day by just showing up and talking with them, listening to what they have to say and making them feel better.
It's so sad for children to have to get sick. More than anyone else, kids don't deserve that. They often can't even understand what's wrong with them. It makes my heart twist.
When I'm with them, I just want to hug them and make it all better for them."
Michael Jackson in his book Moonwalk
"It’s like when a mother sends her child off to war, they don’t know if they’re ever gonna come back, you know? How can we look at such things happening, and not, you know, want to do something? How can we turn our heads and pretend as if we don’t see it? You know? I can’t see people in pain and pretend as if it’s not there."
Michael Jackson
"That just kills me, that kind of stuff. So I try not to watch the news. I feel that pain. I feel that. I feel it."
Michael Jackson in 2003 Living with Michael Jackson documentary (on reports about abducted and murdered children)
"Mike and I were very close. We used to go to this restaurant called Love's, I don't think it's there anymore, and we used to get a ton of dinners. And we'd drive around in the car looking for homeless people to give them to.
"We used to do it all the time, and just give them food. And one guy said, 'I don't want your stinking food!' And I was like, 'Let's get out of here!' He (Michael) was the one who was driving and I was the one passing out the food. But that's the only time there was any sort of rejection."
Janet Jackson about their youth
"A lot of people do not know, when we did the Victory Tour in 1984, he was out there sweating and dancing every show and every rehearsal to get to those shows. He was there on the stage under those lights, hundreds of lights, sweating and working hard. Tiring your body for not a dime.
He donated all his 5 million. Every night, during all those months, he did it for free. And I think this aspect of Michael is just as impressive and remarkable as Michael's musical side.
Jonathan Moffett, a drummer who worked with Michael Jackson for more than 30 years
"During the tour, on his nights off, he would go into a toy store and buy ten of this and ten of that and then stay up all night long putting batteries into the toys, making certain each and every one worked so that he could have them ready to give to kids backstage the next day. As if he didn’t have enough to worry about”
Seth Riggs,Michael's vocal coach
"...But I will never stop helping and loving people the way Jesus said to."
Michael Jackson
"Besides the music, this was a man who dedicated his life to healing the human condition. He put his person, time, considerable financial resources and unique artistry on the line every day. He believed; he was never indifferent to human suffering and the record confirms that. Someday the world will finally understand what we had and exactly what we lost."
Layne, a fan of Michael
"One day, I think, I’d like to be a teacher, or a social worker. Anything, really, that involves children....It would be marvelous to be able to help (foster) kids who otherwise would only know poverty and despair in their lives. I guess that’s about the greatest thing you can do, save someone from a bad life and help to give it some meaning."
Michael Jackson in Wiz-Kid interview, 1978
I remember Michael Jackson use to secretly get in a car with a mask & would ride around town & find homeless people to feed. He loved that!
— Keya Morgan (@KeyaMorgan) March 25, 2012
He was a very caring guy who would go out of his way to help th sick. One night in London he wanted to see some homeless people. He sent them loads of pizzas in secret. The guy had a good heart.“
Cherilyn Lee, registered nurse (Michael Jackson´s nurse ´On The Record,´ 7th July 2009
"I’m saying heal the planet; heal the world, save our children, save the forest. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?"
Michael Jackson
"I’m very concerned about the plight of the international global warming phenomenon. I knew it was coming, but I wish they would have gotten people’s interest sooner. But it’s never too late. It’s been described as a runaway train; if we don’t stop it, we’ll never get it back. So we have to fix it now. That’s what I was trying to do with "Earth Song", "Heal The World", "We Are The World", writing those songs to open up people’s consciousness. I wish people would listen to every word."
Michael Jackson
"Oh, to think about our planet... Seriously. I mean, how to make it a better planet. The global warming issue is a concern to me very much. Just make the world a better, happier place. It's our home. I'd like to see us do a better job of taking care of it, […] [because I am a father] and I have always felt compassion for the planet. Sometime, (sic) I just start to get emotional. I cry, because I can almost feel the pain in the air. So I put it in words and in song and in dance. I think that is what artistry is. You build up on those things through your artistry.”
Michael Jackson speaking to „Good Morning America” on the phone on how he would have wanted his fans to commemorate his 50th birthday and his feelings on world degradation, 2008
“The essence of Halloween is for children to witness the kindness of strangers. It brings the world together.”
Michael Jackson
"Caring. And reading the Bible, learning about God, Jesus, love. He said, 'Bring on the children', 'Imitate the children', 'Be like the children' and 'Take care of others.' Take care of old people. And we were raised with those values. Those are very important values and my family and I we were raised with those values and they continue strong in us today."
Michael Jackson, At Large with Geraldo Rivera TV Interview (2005) about the motivation for his relief efforts
"...You give of yourself. You give of your talent, of your ability…The talent that was given to you by the Heavens. That’s why we’re here, to bring a sense of escapism in time of need. And, if you’re a painter, you paint; if you’re a sculptor, you sculpt; if you’re a writer, you write; if you’re a songwriter, you give songs..... You give people some love and some bliss and some escapism, and to show that you truly care from the heart and be there for them. Not just from a distance, but show you really care. You know, take the long mile and be there for them. And that’s what I did, and many others who cared and helped. And it’s an important thing.......It’s a very important song for the world. To give some feeling and some loving and some caring to those people who were thrust into orphanage, or, just within a matter of seconds, they lost their parents and their loved ones, you know?"
Michael Jackson, online audio chat, 2001, on the charity song "What More Can I Give" and the benefit show he did with a host of stars in memory of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City
"I’m not one to sit back and point the finger and say, 'Oh I feel bad for what happened to them'. I want to do something, to give, to help those who lost their parents, who lost their mothers and their fathers. Those are our people. Those are our children. Those are our parents. I want the whole world to sing ("What More Can I Give"), to bring us together as a world, because a song is a mantra, something you repeat over and over. And we need peace, we need giving, we need love, we need unity."
Michael Jackson in “Rolling Stones” magazine, following the ‘01 terrorist attacks in New York, 2001
"...he loved everyone and he really in many ways spent a lot of money to help people in need. And I watched him do it time and time again. People that needed help desperately… And who would show up? Michael, with his check-book. Nobody knows that. They only think about crazy things that would cause some sort of a sensation. But Michael had a heart of gold.”
Seth Riggs, Singer/Vocal Coach
"I thought what a giving person. He just arrived in town and even before he checks into the hotel, he goes right away to the hospital to visit the seriously sick children in the cancer ward. He seriously LOVED children. And I loved the child in Michael!"
David Winters, dancer and actor
"I would say that what he inspired in me outside of artistically was just spiritual integrity and compassion because I never saw anyone that humble and that serving to others. When he micro performs from like 1984 - I don't have the exact date - he's from around 1984 till his death, about almost 100% of the money that he made as a performer he donated. That's why at the time of his death it was like three hundred and fifty or five hundred million dollars that he had contributed to charities in his lifetime, making him a single greatest giver. He was more honored by that than all the accolades."
Val Johnson (Valentino), performer and friend
What More Can I Give / Todo Para Ti
“I just want to go to Yugoslavia to hug every one of those children and tell them I love them. The TV footage just breaks my heart. It’s just horrifying. I have to turn the TV off. I cry every day. But that’s not enough to turn your head and pretend that it doesn’t exist. I wanna fly down there, if I could, I would love to fly and be right there to see and help and do and create… I am giving proceeds from my album to those refugees, for the families. I wrote a song, ‘What More Can I Give’, that I want to put all the stars together […] And I want to give proceeds to the families of Yugoslavia […] I want those people to know I love them, that we all love them. They are my family, my children. They desperately need our money now to help them. We are all doing too much sitting back, and reading and watching TV, saying how awful it is and not actually doing something about it. One thing I didn’t like about the ‘We Are The World’ song that I wrote, I didn’t like the idea, ‘USA For Africa”, it was like, it was discriminating the rest of the world…’cause I’ve asked for the Bee Gees, I asked for other groups [too], ‘Well, they weren’t born here”, I said ‘I don’t care! I just want the world to show that they care!...I think it’s…I mean, I’m not into politics and I don’t talk about it really, but I think it’s totally ignorant. It’s wrong!...To hurt people, to hurt innocent children over some political issue? I think it’s genocide, it’s wrong. Ethnic cleansing? It’s ignorant. Ethnic cleansing? That’s ignorant. It’s stupid.”
Michael Jackson in “The Daily Mirror” magazine interview about the 1999 events in Kosovo and his fundraising project associated with it
They Don´t Care About Us
(OLODUM written on Michael's chest is a shorter Brazilian/Bahia version of a West African Yoruba word for God - OLODUMARE)
“Michael fought for the tolerance of all people. Michael fought the good fight. He was someone who understood. If he was burned, he built a burn unit. If a hospital needed beds, he built the beds. If they needed money in developing countries, Michael gave. He never stopped giving and he touched those whose lives could be reconstructed.”
Sheila Lee Jackson, Congresswoman, in her speech given by July 7, 2009
From Song Jam
All The World / Must Come Together / Face The Problems / That We See / Then Maybe Somehow We Can Work It Out / I Asked My Neighbor / For A Favor / She Said Later / What Has Come Of / All The People / Have We Lost Love / Of What It's About
I Have To Find My Peace Cuz / No One Seems To Let Me Be / False Prophets Cry Of Doom / What Are The Possibilities / I Told My Brother / There'll Be Problems, / Times And Tears For Fears, / We Must Live Each Day / Like It's The Last (...)
I Told My Brothers / Don't You Ask Me / For No Favors / I'm Conditioned By / The System / Don't You Talk To Me / Don't Scream And Shout
She Pray To God, To Buddha / Then She Sings A Talmud Song / Confusions Contradict The Self / Do We Know Right / From Wrong / I Just Want You To / Recognize Me / I´m The Temple / You Can't Hurt Me / I Found Peace / Within Myself
Michael Jackson in his song "Jam"
An Article: Michael Jackson Legacy: What Michael’s Song Can Still Teach Us about Social Activism
We´ve Had Enough (a fanmade video)
Shout
Ignorance of people purchasing diamonds and necklaces,
And barely able to keep the payments up on their lessons,
And enrolled in a class and don't know who the professor is,
How low people go for the dough and make a mess of things,
Kids are murdering other kids for the fun of it,
Instead of using their mind or their fist, they put a gun in it
Wanna be a part of a clique, don't know who's running it,
Tragedy on top of tragedy you know it's killing me.
So many people in agony, this shouldn't have to be,
Too busy focusing on ourselves and not His Majesty,
There has to be some type of change for this day and age,
We gotta rearrange and flip the page,
Living encaged like animals and cannibals,
Eating each other alive just to survive the nine to five,
Every single day is trouble while we struggle and strive
Peace of mind's so hard to find.
I wanna shout, throw my hands up and shout
What's this madness all about
All this makes me wanna shout
You know it makes me wanna shout,
Throw my hands up and shout
What's this madness all about
All this makes me wanna shout, c'mon now
Problems, complications and accusations
Dividing the nations and races of empty faces
A war is taking place.
No substitution for restitution, the only solution for peace
Is increasing the height of your spirituality.
Masses of minds are shrouded, clouded visions
Deceptions and indecision, no faith or religion, how we're living.
The clock is ticking, the end is coming, there'll be no warning,
But we live to see the dawn.
How can we preach, when all we make this world to be
Is a living hell torturing our minds.
We all must unite, to turn darkness to light,
And the love in our hearts will shine.
We're disconnected from love, we're disrespecting each other
Whatever happened to protecting each other
Poisoned your body and your soul for a minute of pleasure,
But the damage that you've done is gonna last forever.
Babies being born in the world already drug addicted and afflicted,
Family values are contradicted.
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, the pressure is building and I've had enough.
I wanna shout...
Michael Jackson in his song Shout
"It almost sounds crazy to say that the show wasn't about him, but ... he'd put it in perspective all the time, saying, 'This is what we're here for, to spread a message of love and taking care of the planet, that we want people to understand it's very, very dear and not to take it for granted."
Dorian Holley, the vocal director for Jackson's upcoming tour This Is It
"Let's be grateful to God that he sent us such an angel to live amongst us for a while and let us not be indifferent to the wrongs we see around us. If Michael ever wanted us to do one thing that would make him happy as he looks down over us today, it would be not to turn away from the victims of oppression and aggression and if in doubt about ever knowing what or how to act....just think: 'What Would Michael Do?' "
Segment of a speech by Dr. Patrick Treacy
Humanitarian - The Real Michael Jackson - Full Documentary:
People of the World - demo:
~BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY WILL SEE GOD~
Matthew 5:8
“I read this passage in my hotel room before the Memorial Service. I thought about Michael. I thought about how pure his heart was, and how he was able to bless so many people with that purity. And yet ridiculed, accused and abused, he still managed to maintain the pureness of heart, so that everyone who crossed paths with him felt his love. He warmly welcomed all of us on the TII Tour. His disposition was so genuinely sincere. That’s what I focused on during HEAL THE WORLD. Looking into the faces of the children, I remembered Michael’s love for them. A King of Pop as a legend of our time, and as the first and last of his kind, Michael’s message was even greater…”There are people dying, if you care enough for the living, make a better place for you and for me.” This message gets right down to the truth.”
Judith Hill, TII Tour Backup Singer
Michael Jackson the purest soul in the world:
Brandi Jackson: You know, my uncle is... he's a he's not like anybody you've ever met before.
Jason Lee: Well I've told the story I don't know if I've told the story on this show but I've told his story I've had a conversation with Michael one time when I was 15 and I had said that basically when I was going through a foster care and stuff, I was in a group home and Michael had actually... there'd been a school shooting in my neighborhood. It killed all these kids, shot these kids, shot the teachers at the school. This guy blew up his car and then shot them all with a machine gun. It was one of the first school shootings ever and we didn't have social media, babies had the news. I remember coming home and then the counselors Sina's down and talking this through it. I remember a few days later we hear on the radio that Michael Jackson is on the freeway coming to Stockton. We like Cummings talking he actually came and he visited all the kids in the school and encouraged them to find courage that could keep coming to school, tell them that God was with him and that's why they were alive. He paid for all the medical bills of all the kids in the hospital, went to the hospitals to visit all that gunshot victims, paid for all the funerals. He didn't get any recognition but in money and actually try to sneak in and out. And so for me that was just like... this was compassion on a level I had never seen, like totally selfless. He had no reason to come - Michael Jackson the biggest star in the world had no reason to stop everything and come to Stockton to do this for these kids and it was a grieving community where we were all trying to figure out what the hell just happened., right. Because this person had targeted a school with all Asian - most predominantly Asian kids in it and he was in the war so he had little little war figures in his hotel blew up the car the kids all run out to see what happened, he was on the playground with an ak-47 so I say that that was my example so years later when I get out to group home I'm like trying to find Michael Jackson because I'm like this has come not even because he was just the biggest star in the world but because I had never witnessed that level of compassion, right? and didn't understand it and I think I was intrigued, so I called his assistant every day and then finally one day you call me that's amazing, yeah. And so when he called I will never forget two things. One that Michael talked like a nigga. He was like whatz up
Brandi Jackson: Yeah, people don't know that. I'm happy you got to experience that.
Jason Lee: And the other thing is he was very in tuned with the conversation and just the gratitude of somebody that actually wanted to reach out to him for just being himself.
Brandi Jackson: Right, see what you've just described is exactly who he is and a lot of people don't know that.
Moderator: And that's what I wanted to ask you because a lot of what we see about Michael Jackson is from the outside looking in - from TV, from media. You being in the family, what is Michael like, what is his characteristic, what is this person out of the person like.
Brandi Jackson: He, you know I have, I'm gonna start with saying what I said before - he's not like anybody you've ever met. I've never met another person that I could say he reminds me of my uncle Michael. This man is honestly... he's a special, special guy and just how he was saying that he's very compassionate and he's never seen that level of compassion, that's who he is regularly. And he will surprise you with that every time you see him it's something that's hard to digest because it's not common in this in this world. He's really just from a different planet, I have to be honest with you. And that's kind of why, when people look at him, they view him as the psyche cartoon character that's Mickey Mouse or something because it's not something you can relate to.
Jason Lee: Well I think it's because he is so iconic, I mean there isn't another, there hasn't been another human being that has been that magnifying, and that huge, I mean to the point to where even when you're on the phone with him and it sounds like him and you know it's him, you're having like this weird experience because you are so taken aback by how as big as he is on to you in your head, yeah so normal.
One thing I remember he said, because I was living with my mom at the time and I had come out the group home, and I was just like I didn't really, I didn't really know myself because I hadn't been... I didn't had the freedom of interacting with the community because I was in a group home - you get on the bus, you go to the school, you come back here with counselors and people and then you go it's just that was there every day, and he said to me, he said: ´When were you born?´, and I told him, he said: ´I can feel your aura through the phone´. I mean this is how in tune Michael Jackson was on the phone. He never talked to me again after that, but it was interesting because I had asked to go to Neverland, I was like yo Rock come up in Neverland. He was like: ´You know, we don't know, we'll try to make it happen´, but clearly he did.
Excerpt from Brandi Jackson Speaks Out Against Leaving Neverland & Oprah on Hollywood Unlocked [UNCENSORED] youtu.be/sBIRrIZ4n2k 3/2019
Be Not Always:
That One In The Mirror
I wanted to change the world, so I got up one morning and looked in the mirror. That one looking back said, “There is not much time left. The earth is wracked with pain. Children are starving. Nations remain divided by mistrust and hatred. Everywhere the air and water have been fouled almost beyond help. Do something!”
That one in the mirror felt very angry and desperate. Everything looked like a mess, a tragedy, a disaster. I decided he must be right. Didn’t I feel terrible about these things, too, just like him?
The planet was being used up and thrown away. Imagining earthly life just one generation from now made me feel panicky.
It was not hard to find the good people who wanted to solve the earth’s problems. As I listened to their solutions, I thought, “There is so much good will here, so much concern.” At night before going to bed, that one in the mirror looked back at me seriously, “Now we’ll get somewhere,” he declared. “If everybody does their part.”
But everybody didn’t do their part. Some did, but were they stopping the tide? Were pain, starvation, hatred, and pollution about to be solved? Wishing wouldn’t make it so — I knew that.
When I woke up the next morning, that one in the mirror looked confused. “Maybe it’s hopeless,” he whispered.. Then a sly look came into his eyes, and he shrugged. “But you and I
will survive. At least we are doing all right.”
I felt strange when he said that. There was something very wrong here. A faint suspicion came to me, one that had never dawned so clearly before. What if that one in the mirror isn’t me? He feels separate. He sees problems “out there” to be solved. Maybe they will be, maybe They won’t. He’ll get along. But I don’t feel that way — those problems aren’t “out there,” not really. I feel them inside me. A child crying in Ethiopia, a sea gull struggling pathetically in an oil spill, a mountain gorilla being mercilessly hunted, a teenage soldier trembling with terror when he hears the planes fly over : Aren’t these happening in me when I see and hear about them?
The next time I looked in the mirror, that one looking back had started to fade. It was only an image after all. It showed me a solitary person enclosed in a neat package of skin and bones.
“Did I once think you were me?” I began to wonder. I am not so separate and afraid. The pain of life touches me, but the joy of life is so much stronger. And it alone will heal. Life is the healer of life, and the most I can do for the earth is to be its loving child.
That one in the mirror winced and squirmed. He hadn’t thought so much about love. Seeing “problems” was much easier, because love means complete self-honesty. Ouch!
“Oh, friend,” I whispered to him, “do you think anything can solve problems without love?” That one in the mirror wasn’t sure. Being alone for so long, not trusting others and being trusted by others, it tended to detach itself from the reality of life. “Is love more real than pain?” he asked.
“I can’t promise that it is. But it might be. Let’s discover,” I said. I touched the mirror with a grin. “Let’s not be alone again. Will you be my partner? I hear a dance starting up. Come.” That one in the mirror smiled shyly. He was realizing we could be best friends. We could be more peaceful, more loving, more honest with each other every day.
Would that change the world? I think it will, because Mother Earth wants us to be happy and to love her as we tend her needs. She needs fearless people on her side, whose courage comes from being part of her, like a baby who is brave enough to walk because Mother is holding out her arms to catch him. When that one in the mirror is full of love for me and for him, there is no room for fear. When we were afraid and panicky, we stopped loving this life of ours and this earth. We disconnected. Yet how can anybody rush to help the earth if they feel disconnected?
Perhaps the earth is telling us what she wants, and by not listening, we fall back on our own fear and panic.
One thing I know : I never feel alone when I am earth’s child. I do not have to cling to my personal survival as long as I realize, day by day, that all of life is in me. The children and their pain; the children and their joy. The ocean swelling under the sun; the ocean weeping with black oil. The animals hunted in fear; the animals bursting with the sheer joy of being alive.
This sense of “the world in me” is how I always want to feel. That one in the mirror has his doubts sometimes. So I am tender with him. Every morning I touch the mirror and whisper, “Oh, friend, I hear a dance. Will you be my partner? Come.”
Michael Jackson in his book Dancing the Dream
