By Magaga Alot

On this day we should all spare a thought for Michael Jackson. He is not the one who pulled down the Berlin Wall and solved all the problems of mankind. He is not the one who was sent to redeem all mankind of its sins. But he rode the crest of a wave of human civilization. That today we are all dropped down and feel so devastated by the benumbing sounds of the tolling bells of his passing, it is not at the passing of a Saint, but at the sad, very sad, passing of a young man who started young, blazed the trail of a unique popular culture and entertainment, and died when he was still young and looking forward to doing more.

For those of the 1970’s generation that were privy to his début into his meteoric entertainment and musical career, it was not as if they just had to dance. They would have danced just the same but not to such good music and dance that only Michael Jackson provided. Back then, there was no one greater than him. For a long time there was never to be; and there will not be another like him for a long time to come. He strode the world stage like a colossus.

In its genre, Michael Jackson’s is a legacy unbeaten in the history of mankind. He had his lows and downs and moments of serious issues, some simply silly or just weird, that would find their way into the courts of law and extensive publicity in the media of communications. On the same balance sheet, however, he also reached dizzying heights of achievement, re-inventing, so to speak, the razzmatazz and touching so many around the world with his inspirational music and message.

When he sang “Don’t stop till you get enough”, there were those who might have taken the cue to indulge a vanity and pursuit of human greed and debauchery to the end. Yet there were others, inspired by the same lyrics and thrills, determined to reach out with human compassion and devotion to create a new world social and economic order.

The world is still what it is today, riddled with vice of all kinds and weighed down with a huge deficit of, so to speak, “the milk of human compassion”. This was not for Michael Jackson’s lack of trying, nor for that matter, necessarily the widely perceived incorrigibility of the human race. His plaintive plea in “I’ll be there”, not to mention such blockbusters as “We are the World” and “Black or White”, were intended to be so uplifting of mankind and indeed they were.

But as with life being what it is, Michael Jackson did not win them all. He won some and he lost some. I think the thrust of his message was to bring out the virtue of being and doing the best in all of us to become Number One. On account of this, many people and Barack Obama have become Number One in their various fields and stations of calling. Simply the Best and Great of All Time, that’s what Michael Jackson was and will always be remembered.

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*** MAGAGA ALOT is a corporate communications expert and author of “Daughter of State”

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Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:43:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON