Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. So it's only appropriate to talk about love. But with a topic this large, we have to be more selective. So we won't talk about just any kind of love, but the kind a washed out pop star shares with young children.
Last Thursday ABC aired the special, "Living with Michael Jackson." During this special, Michael talked about many things including his idea of love. He said the world needs love, and sharing your bed is the ultimate sign of love.
He was very open with his passions - that he loved climbing trees, getting plastic surgery and sharing his bed with little children. It's just his way.
Our first, second and third instincts might be to chastise, beat and extradite Jackson, but let's give him every benefit of the doubt and try to understand.
Look at the way Michael Jackson was raised. He was the leader of the Jackson 5. If that doesn't screw you up enough, think about how his father treated him. Jackson admitted he was terrified of his father because he used to beat the living hell out of him if he missed a dance step.
I can sympathize with Jackson. I didn't end up sleeping with little children, but I remember every night asking my own father, "Daddy, will you read me this story?"
And every night he gave me the same response: "Chris, you're 17 years old. Read the damn story yourself."
So from personal experience, I can see where Jackson is coming from. However, I don't think that is a valid excuse. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that Jackson learned from his father's mistakes?
Michael, obviously, did not take a lesson from his father's failings. He named his first child Prince Michael and his second Prince Michael II. While he didn't directly beat the children, he essentially gave everyone they meet a license to beat them with those names.
Aside from giving his children weird names, Jackson makes them wear masks. Whenever they want to look at the world, they have to do it through paper mâche, feathers and paint.
What all this boils down to is that when celebrities want to lead bizarre lifestyles, it is quirky. When regular people do it, it's often criminal.
For example, Sam Lawson was arrested last week for allegedly luring a minor for sexual exploitation. In sum, he wrote some illicit things to a 40-year-old police officer on a sting operation, thinking she was a 13-year-old girl. (Didn't Sam stop and think, "Officer Roberts is a strange name for a young girl?")
But this doesn't even compare to sleeping with young children. Yet Lawson was arrested, and Michael got a primetime special. I think sleeping in the same bed with little children should qualify as luring minors for sexual exploitation.
Jackson is serious in his belief that sleeping with little children is a sign of love, but how do we know that Lawson wasn't just joking around? The point is that little guys like Lawson don't have pop hits like "Smooth Criminal" and "Man in the Mirror" watching their backs.
Jackson, you should keep these indecencies to yourself. No one wants to know the way they make you feel, we don't care how much you like to "Beat It," and if "Billie Jean" is a minor, keep him/her out of your bed.
Chris Fanning is a journalism sophomore. Reach him at christopher.fanning@asu.edu.
