I'm sorry... I'm too lazy to read all 10 pages so this has probably been said a million times already, but I'll say it anyway.
Some say they don't care, some say it's downright wrong to get upset about one man dying when there's so much unnecessary death and suffering in world that we just don't give a fuck about. But let's face it, celebrities are people we know. At least we think of them as such. And as far as celebrities go, MJ was second only to Elvis. Now I can respect that not everyone agrees that he deserved such fame. I don't think Elvis did. I mean, I can't stand listening to his crap! BUT... I can still respect the fact that millions and millions of people disagree with me. Whether or not MJ was a big deal to you or not, to millions he was someone who played a part in their lives, even though they didn't know him personally. When some who plays a part in your life dies, it affects you directly. When a million kids in Africa starve to death or die from AIDS because we were too busy getting fat to help them, it doesn't. That's why so many people are upset about MJ's death, and I gotta say, I feel it too. I was born in '81. His music (Thriller, Bad, Billie Jean, etc) was part of my childhood.
I think that no matter how fucked up he was (not being allowed to be a child while you're still young would have that effect, I suppose), the media always treated him a lot worse than he deserved. I remember I even defended him in WoW guild chat when the pedophilia charges were hot news. My standpoint was always, "It wouldn't surprise me, but no matter what we think we know about him, he's still innocent until proven guilty". (Yay! Now that's restraint! I managed to keep myself from adding a done-to-death, never-that-funny joke that would have been both racially insensitive and offensive to those who truly mourn his death. I should get a medal for that!)
EDIT: Typo
