Watching [the Bashir documentary], many viewers who had tuned in for a freak show came away instead with new sympathy for the embattled and cosmetically mutilated King of Pop. Mr. Jackson seems to be suffering the poisonous after-effects of a traumatic childhood.
And wasn't that what Fred Rogers was trying to teach us: that emotionally unhealthy children become emotionally unhealthy adults?
"The way Rogers saw it," Millman concludes, "A secure and happy childhood was of the greatest importance not because we stay children forever, but because we don't."
But did Michael Jackson really learn nothing from Mister Rogers? Actually, I think he learned a lot.
Don't take my word for it, of course. Instead, take the following quick quiz. I'll provide the quote; you decide if the speaker is revered television legend Mister Rogers or the King of Pop, Michael Jackson:
1. "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. . . . That consciousness of purity. And children have that. I see God in the face of children. I just love being around that all the time."
2. "People don't even eat with their fathers any more, or their mothers. The family bond has been broken. It's an outcry for attention [when] kids are going to school with guns. They want love, they want to be touched, they want to be held. . . . I'm just very sensitive to their pain."
3. "When I was angry as a child, my family wouldn't allow me to crash and stomp around through the house, but they did encourage me to play out my feelings on the piano. That's when I discovered the real power of music. I'd begin by banging random notes -- anything (like a punch!). The longer I played, though, the calmer my music became, the calmer I became, too. That piano probably got me out of a lot of trouble. To this day, I can still laugh and cry and express anger and dissapointment through the tips of my fingers on piano keys. It's just as natural for me as breathing."
4. "Children are loving, they don't gossip, they don't complain, they're just open-hearted. They're ready for you. They don't judge. They don't see things by way of color. They're very child-like. That's the problem with adults. They lose that child-like quality. And that's the level of inspiration that's so needed and is so important for creating and writing songs and for a sculptor, a poet or a novelist. It's that same kind of innocence, that same level of consciousness, that you create from. And kids have it."
5. "You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable."
6. "My best friends in the whole world are children and animals. They're the ones who tell the truth and love you openly and without reservation."
7. "We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."
8. “I love whimsy, don’t you? If you’re going to be working for children, you need to do your best not to lose your childlikeness . . . it’s wonderful to be able to just be yourself.”
9. "I've always wanted to be able to tell stories, stories that came from my soul. I'd like to sit by a fire and tell people stories -- make them see pictures, make them cry and laugh, take them anywhere emotionally. I'd like to tell tales to move their souls and transform them. I've always wanted to be able to do that."
10. "The number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you.' One hundred and forty-three. 'I love you.' Isn't that wonderful?"
Answers (highlight text to reveal):
1. Jackson
2. Jackson
3. Rogers
4. Jackson
5. Rogers
6. Jackson
7. Rogers
8. Rogers
9. Jackson
10. Rogers
Blame Todd Bonin for the concept.
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