Michael Jackson and his affinity towards children...Mature Discussion PLEASE...

[q46tothee]

First off let me say, that I didn't feel like this was appropriate to post in the MJ RIP thread, and I hope that the Mods keep this open. People arepouring their hearts out, and reading what many folks here on NT are saying about MJ is really touching.

I'm going to post a transcript that I found from the "Living with Michael Jackson" where MJ was interviewed by Martin Bashir. The transcript iswhere Bashir asks MJ about sharing his bedroom with children.

Before I go any further, I just want to say that I am a HUGE fan of his music. There will never EVER be anyone who comes close to making the type of impact hedid on the whole landscape of the music industry. I can definitely appreciate his music, but I am a little confused as to what to make of him as a man. Mostof my feelings come from his relationship with children. It's no secret MJ had a horrible upbringing, but there is NO excuse IMO for his actions. As muchas I blame MJ, a lot of the fault has to fall on the shoulders of the parents who would trust this man unattended with their kids in the first place. No oneknows what actually went down behind closed doors, but after reading this transcript I couldn't help but to

.

My feelings on the man since he has passed are virtually the same as when he was alive. I'm not insensitive, but the underlying issue of what hisrelationship was with kids etc overshadows a lot of who he was as a whole.

The transcript and a picture of MJ w. "Gavin" is going to be posted below....again, please....let's have a mature discussion on this. The RIPthread is filled with great photos, videos, and rememberances of the man...I want to let that be, and not take away from that thread or what others have tosay. If you can honestly have an OBJECTIVE discussion, please chime in.

"Living with Michael Jackson"
Excerpts from the programme transcript (from ITV.com)
On Jackson's habit of sharing his bedroom with children:

Martin Bashir: "When you are talking about children we met Gavin - and it was a great privilege to meet Gavin because he's had a lot of suffering in his life - when Gavin was there he talked about the fact that he shares your bedroom?"

Jackson: "Yes."

Bashir: "Can you understand why people would worry about that?"

Jackson: "Because they are ignorant."

Bashir: "But is it really appropriate for a 44-year-old man to share a bedroom with a child that is not related to him at all?"

Jackson: "That's a beautiful thing."

Bashir: "That's not a worrying thing?"

Jackson: "Why should that be worrying, what's the criminal...who's Jack the Ripper in the room? There's some guy trying to heal a healing child ... I'm in a sleeping bag on the floor. "I gave him the bed because he has a brother named Star, so him and Star took the bed and I went along on the sleeping bag."

Bashir: "Did you ever sleep in the bed with them?"

Jackson: "No. But I have slept in a bed with many children. "I slept in a bed with all of them when Macauley Culkin was little: Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macauley Culkin was on this side, his sisters in there...we all would just jam in the bed, you know. "We would wake up like dawn and go in the hot air balloon, you know, we had the footage. I have all that footage."

Bashir: "But is that right Michael?"

Jackson: "It's very right. It's very loving, that's what the world needs now, more love more heart."

Bashir: "The world needs a man who's 44 who's sleeping in a bed with children?"

Jackson: "No, you're making it - no, no you're making it all wrong ..."

Bashir: "Well, tell me, help me ..."

Jackson: "Because what's wrong with sharing a love? You don't sleep with your kids? Or some other kid who needs love who didn't have a good childhood?"

Bashir: "No, no I don't. I would never dream ..."

Jackson: "That's because you've never been where I've been mentally ..."

Bashir: "What do you think people would say if I said well - 'I've invited some of my daughter's friends round or my son's friends round and they are going to sleep in a bed with me tonight'?

Jackson: "That's fine!"

Bashir: "What do you think their parents would say?"

Jackson: "If they're wacky they would say 'You can't', but if you're close family, like your family, and you know them well and ..."

Bashir: "But Michael, I wouldn't like my children to sleep in anybody else's bed."

Jackson: "Well, I wouldn't mind if I knew the person well. I am very close to Barry Gibb - Paris and Prince can stay with him anytime; my children sleep with other people all the time.

Bashir: "And you're happy with that?"

Jackson: "Fine with it. They're honest, they are sweet people. They are not Jack the Ripper."

--

Speaking to Gavin:

Bashir: "What is it, Gavin, about Michael that makes him connect so well with children? What is it?"

Gavin: "Because he's really a child at heart. He acts just like a child, he knows how a child is, he knows what a child thinks". "See, because I think that you don't necessarily have to be a child just because society says that 18 and up you have to be an adult. Doesn't really matter. You're an adult when you want to be one."

(snip)

Bashir: "When you stay here, do you stay in the house? Does Michael let you enjoy the whole premises?"

Gavin: "There was one night, I asked him if I could stay in his bedroom. He let me stay in the bedroom." "And I was like, 'Michael you can sleep in the bed', and he was like 'No, no, you sleep on the bed', and I was like 'No, no, no, you sleep on the bed', and then he said 'Look, if you love me, you'll sleep in the bed'. I was like 'Oh mannnn?" so I finally slept on the bed." "But it was fun that night."

Jackson: "I slept on the floor. [to Gavin] Was it a sleeping bag?"

Gavin: "You packed the whole mess of blankets on the floor."

Bashir: "But Michael, you're a 44-year-old man now, what do you get out of this?"

Gavin: "He ain't 44, he's 4!"

Jackson: "Yeah, I'm 4. I love, I feel, I think what they get from me, I get from them. I've said it many times, my greatest inspiration comes from kids. Every song I write, every dance I do, all the poetry I write, is all inspired from the level of innocence." "That consciousness of purity. And children have that. I see God in the face of children. And man, I just love being around that all the time."

Bashir: "But when people hear that children from other families have come and they've stayed in your house, they've stayed in your bedroom ..?"

Jackson: "Very few."

Bashir: "Well, you know, but some have, and they say, is that really appropriate for a man - for a grown man - to be doing that? How do you respond to that?"

Jackson: "I feel sorry for them because that's judging someone who just wants to really help people." "Why can't you share your bed? The most loving thing to do, is to share your bed with someone."

Bashir: "You really think that?"

Jackson: "Yahhh. Of course."

Gavin: "You are taking the position that you use every single night that you sleep and you're sharing it with another ..."

Jackson: "You're saying you can have my bed if you want, sleep in it. I'll sleep on the floor. It's yours. Always give the best to the company, you know. Like to him. Because he was going to sleep on the floor and I said 'No, you sleep in the bed and I'll sleep on the floor.'"

Bashir: "But haven't you got a spare room or a spare house here where he could have stayed?"

Jackson: "No.. yes, we have guest units, but whenever kids come here they always want to stay with me, they never want to stay in the guest rooms." "And I have never invited them into my room, they always just wanna stay with me. They say, 'Can I stay with you tonight?', so I go 'If it's OK with your parents then yes you can'."

Bashir: "Were your parents happy that you were here with Michael?"

Gavin: "Yeah, well, my ma was very, very, very happy. And I know they're happy, because I'm happy."

Bashir: "Did they come with you?"

Gavin: "Most of the time I wasn't busy with my parents, I was mainly with Michael."

Bashir: "But they were happy that you were here?

Jackson: "Yeah."

---

(snip)

Jackson: "I'm just very sensitive to their pain and I am very sensitive to the family, the human condition, you know. "On that subject, it means a lot to me and I want to help. Whatever I can to help that you know, it's like I said before and I'll say it a million times, I'm not afraid to say it." "If there were no children on this earth, if someone announced all kids were dead, I would jump off the balcony immediately, I'm done, I'm done."

---

On allegations of molesting 13-year-old Jordy Chandler, which Jackson has always denied, He paid the boy's parents 18 million to drop a civil case against him:

Bashir: "I suppose the problem for many people is what happened in 1993, or what didn't happen?"

Jackson: "What 'didn't happen'?"

Bashir: "Just cast your mind back, what was that like when you first heard the allegations that were being made against you?"

Jackson: "It was shocking and I'm not allowed to talk about this by way of law, so ..."

Bashir: "But how did you feel about what was being said? I'm not asking you to talk about what was said."

Jackson: "I was shocked because, um, God knows, in my heart how much I adore children."

Bashir: "Isn't that precisely the problem, that when you actually invite children into your bed you never know what is going to happen?"

Jackson: "When you say bed, you're thinking sexual, they make that sexual, it's not sexual." "We're going to sleep, I tuck them in and I put a little like, er, music on and when it's story time I read a book." "We go to sleep with the fireplace on. I give them hot milk, you know, we have cookies, it's very charming, it's very sweet, it's what the whole world should do."

Bashir: "The reason that has been given for why you didn't go to jail is because, because you reached a financial settlement with the family?"

Jackson: "Yeah, I didn't want to do a long drawn-out thing on TV like OJ, and all that stupid stuff, you know, it wouldn't look right. I said, look, get this over with. I want to go on with my life. This is ridiculous, I've had enough, go."


Link

 

[jayhood23]

Locked

 

[thegoat121886]

 

[kix4kix]

Lock this up. Please. ASAP, nothing good can come of it.

 

[emmanuel goldstein]

in my opinion he never did anything to those kids except love them in a way society deems "weird" ...

 

[q46tothee]

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Goldstein

in my opinion he never did anything to those kids except love them in a way society deems "weird" ...

How did you honestly view his relationship w. children? Did you think it was strange, or was he just misunderstood?

 

[sorkoram]

Originally Posted by kix4kix

Lock this up. Please. ASAP, nothing good can come of it.

 

[hollakid619]

But you don't have to take my word for it.

Do NOT Click [url=http://niketalk.com/topic/184181]HERE, HERE, or HERE!
[/url]

 

[babyface34]

Bottom line. Kids respected him, they were straight up with him, and they never leeched off of him (unless coerced by adults). He was just Michael to them.He's been burned by so many adults in his life since he was a kid himself, and (w/ the exception of Donny Osmond, his brothers & a couple others) hewasn't able to build a lot of friendships with kids his age due to his circumstances. That was the extent of it imo.

 

[ninjahood]

i mean we can all yell about lockin it, and shovin da truth under da bed pun intended, but let's face it folks...that was weird.

 

[kix4kix]

Originally Posted by ninjahood

i mean we can all yell about lockin it, and shovin da truth under da bed pun intended, but let's face it folks...that was weird.

To you. Mike was just trying to give those kids something he never had. A father figure that loved them.

 

[q46tothee]

Originally Posted by Sorkoram

Originally Posted by kix4kix

Lock this up. Please. ASAP, nothing good can come of it.

Out of respect for the discussion and tributes going on in the RIP thread, this was not an appropriate topic to discuss in there. His affinitytowards children was a BIG part of his life. You can ignore it if you want, but if you can have a reasonable discussion about it, please contribute to thethread with something more than stonefaces and asking for this to be locked ASAP....


Look....I'm just confused about what to make of all of this. I'm open to all sides of the discussion for better or worse. I will in no way attacksomeone for their opinion on what this part of MJ's life meant to them.

 

[sorkoram]

Originally Posted by Q46totheE

Originally Posted by Sorkoram

Originally Posted by kix4kix

Lock this up. Please. ASAP, nothing good can come of it.

Out of respect for the discussion and tributes going on in the RIP thread, this was not an appropriate topic to discuss in there. His affinity towards children was a BIG part of his life. You can ignore it if you want, but if you can have a reasonable discussion about it, please contribute to the thread with something more than stonefaces and asking for this to be locked ASAP....

You could've given it some time before you start the whole process of discussing this issue. We all know about it and have went over it in ourminds, even if we ruled it out later. The celebration of his life is still in full swing and I doubt many would like for the celebration to take a negativeswing, such as this one. This is why I asked for it to be locked.

In due time, it will be revisited and discussed at length, I'm quite sure, just give it a little bit.

 

[emmanuel goldstein]

Originally Posted by Q46totheE


How did you honestly view his relationship w. children? Did you think it was strange, or was he just misunderstood?

i view it as something you dont see everyday, but not something you should hold against the man ... i believe in his mind he was just connectingwith the children and helping them ...

 

[neptunebeats187]

Great read. Deep inside, I know this is how he thinks mentally. I couldn't imagine Mike being sexually turned on by little boys. If you look at rarefootage interviews of him talking with Quincy or w/e you can kinda pull that from him mentally. The way he has exotic pets, and cares for them, and the way hetalks about them. He really got a bad rep forever, the worst that he could never shake because he truly didn't care what the media thought. He knew in hismind there was no REAL problem with what he was doing, and he probably felt God knew what was true, so who the hell cares what a bunch of people think theyknow? They are all going off media facts anyway. Some people are evil, you don't think they would think of some way to create allegations that could getmoney out of Mike and have them set for LIFE? I really think he didn't do it. The only thing I don't understand with Mike is all the plastic surgery.Like I wish I knew what he was aiming for? But anyway, nice read... I remember that interview when I was younger.

 

[kix4kix]

Making a thread about this is like making a thread about Kobe's Rape charges, or OJ's murder trial. All it can do is divide. The matter of fact is dudewas acquitted on all charges over ALL of his cases. Mike was too good for this cruel world anyway, and deserved better. Innocence destroyed. Michael didn'tabuse anyone, We abused him.

 

[swoboydehteezy]

This is gonna be good. Can't wait.

 

[ninjahood]

To you. Mike was just trying to give those kids something he never had. A father figure that loved them.
man, that %@!# was weird for everyone stop it.

you can go to youtube and find hundreds of comic view/HBO/Def comdedy jam/ of skits on michael jackson....

you google michael jackson tattoo and da first thing that pops up is

so i know i hold michael jackson as 2 entities...da dark skinned mike in thriller with swag outta da planet, and da white mike who settled a molestion chargeoutta court in da mid 90's.

and STILL was rockin with kids after that.

 

[T0INE]

Originally Posted by ninjahood

i mean we can all yell about lockin it, and shovin da truth under da bed pun intended, but let's face it folks...that was weird.

I agree.

The man was an icon no question about it, but this whole situtation with the kids always made me feel uneasy.

 

[kix4kix]

*Exits thread after OP gets exactly what he wanted*

 

[q46tothee]

Originally Posted by kix4kix

Making a thread about this is like making a thread about Kobe's Rape charges, or OJ's murder trial. All it can do is divide. The matter of fact is dude was acquitted on all charges over ALL of his cases. Mike was too good for this cruel world anyway, and deserved better. Innocence destroyed. Michael didn't abuse anyone, We abused him.

I understand where you're coming from, but even after MJ settled out of court, he STILL was having kids in his bedroom. You're sayingthat his innocence was destroyed and we abused him like it is US who view things odd that he did when in actuality it was the "norm."

Also, no matter what you discuss about Kobe or OJ, they will still have the rape/murder tied to them for the rest of their lives. It's not something thatcan be forgotten.

 

[daytona 5000]

Man any logical person would think something sexual happened. Forget the fact that its Michael Jackson, would this be accepted? Would YOU let you pre-teen sonor daughter sleep in bed with a 44 year old man? Regardless of whether or not something happened, that is weird as hell. I do think some funny stuff happened,but a little part of me believes that maybe something may not have happened, just based off one of his reactions in the video....He got real flustered likeNOOOO you guys are taking it the wrong way...and he had this look in his eyes, like listen to what I'm saying....I dunno

 

[big j 33]

He wasn't normal, by all of society's views and expectations of appropriate behavior.

The nature of his childhood definitely influenced his actions later on and probably helped develop the Peter Pan syndrome he had.

I really don't know what the truth is... I want to believe that he just loved kids and wanted to be around them, but it certainly made me uncomfortable foryears.

 

[emmanuel goldstein]

i dont get how its weird ... because he slept with children in his room? did these children drive themselves to his house? even if he did sleep in the samebed, you honestly think he raped lil boys? come on now ...

i think the bigger issue is #!% was his deal with the skin bleaching and surgery ... i dont understand what he was trying to prove there ...

 

[dunkaroos]

Mike was a loving man.

Leave him alone..... for once.