...long live his legacy.

He was the reason I started paying attention in English class - so that I could understand the lyrics of "Man in the Mirror". He taught us a valuable lesson there, and yet, how many of us really stopped to listen ?
He showed us music videos can be stories in themselves.
He changed forever the entertainment world.
He was the first artist to hold a concert in my country, in 1992, and for two hours I sang and I cried and the world was a better place.
And then time passed and I moved on to a different kind of music and I took the posters off the wall... but never forgot.
And then there were the scandals and the media circus and the acquittal and so on.
And now it's over.
And everybody and their mother is crying and the 'net is flooding with RIP and farewell messages and I can't help but screaming "where the heck were all you people when the media was hunting him ? when the DA's office took on his 'case' as if it were their personal vendetta? where were you when he needed your support?"

He was a soft-talking, high-pitch singing, moonwalking contradiction.
A huge talent. A product and a victim of the American star system.
An America  - and a world- which was fascinated by his 'otherness', but could never forgive him for being different.

What is it with us, people ? Why can't we appreciate artists while they're alive ? Why do we have to put them down during their lifetimes and then build them shrines when they're dead?
What is it that we're afraid of ?