Michael Jackson: The Final Encore.

Michael Jackson is not the first celebrity to die from a lethal amount of drugs. This is becoming a true,and sad tale of among celebrities. The Los Angeles coroner ruled that Michael Jackson's death a homicide. It seems if you have money you can buy drugs, secrecy and a doctor. Addicts struggle every day with their addiction,and it a constant battle even when they are sober. It takes great strength for the addict to push away from the addiction and seek help. Many need help with facing their demons in order to become drug free and to lead productive lives without self medicating. Family and friends many times try and help but it usually a battle that they do are not equipped to fight. It is also tough to dish out "tough love" on someone that you care about forcing them into rehab.

From all appearances it seems that Michael Jackson's family and friends knew he was in trouble. Addicts are very good at fooling people in making them think that everything is fine. I don't know all of what his life entailed even though he was in the spot light for decades. Which is another story all in itself. The isolation that comes with extreme fame has to be a factor in his long struggle with addiction. The other factor may also be the incident doing the Coca-Cola commercial where Michael caught on fire and would be come addicted to pain meds which started him on the road to addiction.

Money is another element to this tragedy, along with the "yes men" that surround celebrities claiming to be friends. Those that will do anything for you even if it is wrong. Jackson had a lethal dose of Propofol in his system at time of death. I am not a doctor but it seems the person injecting him with drugs whether lethal or not is just as guilty to contributing to a person's addiction as the addict is himself. Obtaining prescription drugs illegally is a crime. Doctors who take money to be your personal drug dealer is shameful.

I am hoping that this tragedy of a little boy who marveled us with his singing, who in later years gave us the "moon walk", and "Thriller" will not have died in vain. I can not speak for him but I believe he would want people to learn too love and be helpful. That sometimes hard love is better than taking a blinds eye to what is happening to those around us. His three children must face a life without him and I think that is something he never wanted. Maybe if enablers stopped enabling, the addict would be forced to face his or her demons on their own and seek help. Whoever gave Michael Jackson that lethal dose took that chance of recovery away from him.

If you want to read about the trial of Dr Conrad Murray, the doctor that was carrying for Michael Jackson check out my Hub of the day to day trial proceedings.

Enablers should be accountable for their actions. The person letting you use their name to fill another prescription, the doctor who has become your drug dealer, the person who goes out buying your drugs, and the person who injects you. The task of getting rid of enablers becomes tougher when their is a celebrity and money involved. It is hard to say know to a celebrity because it may end your relationship and with cash being waved around it makes it even tougher to say "no". A true carrying friend would say no because they are not going to help you kill yourself. Fame brings strange bedfellows and unfortunately they can help bring you down or contribute to your death. Michael Jackson does take responsibility but addicts have a tough time on killing the beast of addiction. But if a doctor administers a harmful drug and that negligence leads to that person death that is a crime. Negligence greatly influenced the life of Jackson which resulted in his death. This type of enabler is deadly.

If you know someone that is an addict? There is help out there. If you are an addict seek treatment. The first step is always the hardest. It does get easier as each day goes by. Stop associating with those that do drugs with you and those that enable you to keep on abusing.

I'm Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .
~Man In The Mirror~ Michael Jackson

Over Christmas I received an Amazon gift card and one item that I really wanted was the book by Aphrodite Jones on the Michael Jackson trial. I had been told that I needed to read this book in order to get a perspective of the trial that they media failed to cover. This book is a must read for those that thought justice was not carried out the day Michael Jackson was found 'not guilty'. One aspect that has come out is that the media had him condemned before the trial ever started and in many ways wanted him to fail due to the fact that there was money to be made if he was thrown in prison. The media from small productions to the giants like Fox, CNN and others were already lining up who would follow his every move and his day to day life behind bars. With this in mind they covered stuff like what he wore, the pajama day, his makeup and more things to make Michael seem even more weird than we thought. Many of us were either concerned, or shocked at what Michael was doing to his face with the plastic surgery. It is something to this day that I will not understand what he was thinking. Unfortunately his looks played into making him seem like a freak, which the media took great advantage of. Instead of concentrating on what was being said in the courtroom the concentration was on what would sell. One cannot judge a book by it's cover and judging Michael because of his looks was wrong.  Or judging him because we just did not understand him and it is hard to imagine what it was like to walk in his shoes.

As for what happened in the courtroom in many ways is shameful. The Prosecution had on their side people who's stories changed or flat out refused to answer questions. The time line did not seem right either. I really doubt Michael Jackson was stupid enough to molest a child after the Bashir interview which portrayed Michael in a bad light. Jackson was being hounded daily after that and this is when the molestation took place. If Michael Jackson was a pedophile their would have been things going on way before this. Then put in there that these children had lied about other things and their mother having been involved in fraud. The parents also received money from celebrities because the family said it did not have any money to pay the son's bills for his cancer treatment. When in fact his father's health insurance picked up most of the bill. Something I learned while being involved in 'criminal justice" is if you tell the truth your story will stay consistent. If you lie it is hard to keep track of what you said to whom. The stories these children gave lacked consistency and the victim in this case changed aspects of his story many times. Another interesting aspect was that they all praised Michael Jackson for helping them emotionally and financially but during the trial claim he did nothing.

I would really hate to feel that parents would ask their children to lie to get what does not belong to them. This family was doing this before they met Michael Jackson and is obvious it did not end with him. If parents can do unspeakable things to their own children I guess asking them to point a finger at someone for money is logical. I for one was a Jackson fan but believed at the time that there was something to these kids stories. After reading transcripts and reading Aphrodite Jones book I have come to the conclusion that the 'not guilty' verdict was correct. On the Bashir interview the jury was able to see the outtakes which cast a bad light, not on Michael but on Bashir. Bashir did everything possible to get Michael to trust him then he turned on him. If you read about Michael Jackson, what his friends and family say about him was that he was never unkind, he was very trusting, and loved everyone. He always thought the best of people and the Arvizo family knew an easy mark when they saw Michael Jackson.

This is a great book to read to give you a perspective that was lacking during the trial.

Last night, September 3, 2009 Michael Jackson was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale California 70 days after his untimely death. Mourners gathered to pay their last respects. Mourners included his children, parents, siblings, extended family and friends. Among his friends that attended where Elizabeth Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley, Macauly Caulkin, Barry Bonds, Chris Tucker and more. Debbie Rowe was invited by the family but she was a no show. Gladys Knight sang the "Lords Prayer". It was open to whomever wanted to get up and talk. Jackson's final resting place will be in the large mausoleum filled with such celebrities as, Clark Gable and Jean Harlowe. Hopefully for the family this will be some closer. I believe final closer is a ways off due to the nature of his his death.

The movie documentary "This Is It" due out in a few days. Those that were able to preview it say that it is good. There was some 160 hours of footage and narrowed to two hours of what is considered to be the best from those hours. It is on a limited release only being out for two weeks. So if you want to see it in the theatre do wait. For many seeing it on the big screen is the only way to see it.