The King is Dead. It has been almost 24 hours since the death of Micheal Jackson.

Michael Jackson was, undeniably, the most influential artist and dancer of my time.  He was our generation’s Elvis.  Hands down.  No question.  His musical contributions are endless and timeless.

Now, I have noticed something interesting in the hours since his passing; no one is talking about the faults of Michael, the man.  The media coverage, tweets, and facebook updates are all positive and refer to his musical legacy.  Actually, any negative mention is met with disdain and a kind of you-did-not-just-go-there reaction.

It is no secret that MJ struggled throughout his life, personally.  I can speculate about the contributing factors, but having not known him, I won’t.  His struggles were public and he was consistently blasted in the media for each of his misguided actions – from money management, to Neverland Ranch, to child molestation charges, to hanging Blanket off a balcony, to his plastic surgery, to his skin colour.  Dude had issues; that’s not a secret.   He was villianized by the media and even his fans.

So, why is no one talking about all that stuff today?  Where are the jabs and the jokes at his expense?  Where are the accusations and allegations?  Is no one talking about all that because he is dead? Likely.

This begs a bigger question.  Why is it alright to speak ill of people when they are alive, but not once they have died?!  It is alright to speak ill of people as long as they are alive to hear it, process it, and get hurt by it?  I guess we believe that the memory of a person is more fragile (or more important?) than the person was.  That doesn’t make sense to me.

I am not saying that we should speak ill of the dead, but the next time I think of speaking ill of people – famous or not – I am going to ask myself whether I’d say that if they were dead.

Regardless, I am very pleased that MJ is being remembered for his music.  His legacy will be his music, and for all his faults, that is the way it should be.

Human Nature just came on the radio.  Hmm…