The Greatest Entertainer of All Time

Berry Gordy, the legendary head of Motown Records, who discovered the Jackson 5, said today of the late Michael Jackson, that he was the greatest entertainer of all time. The spectacle that was his memorial service in Los Angeles surely ranked up there as one of the greatest entertainment events ever produced, especially in such a short period of time.

I wasn't a great fan of Michael Jackson. I wasn't even a casual fan of Michael Jackson. His songs were okay, but to be honest, I enjoyed the sounds that he and his brothers made as the Jackson 5. Now THOSE were some songs with SOUL. And no matter what you thought about his weirdness or the charges he molested children, Michael Jackson it appears, was something no one can deny. He was a father who was loved by his children.

Children are so fickle. If you buy them their favorite toy or take them to the water park, you ultimately are the best father in the entire world. But when you discipline them, even in love, you become the most horrible monster ever allowed to spawn. Michael Jackson had the one thing that no critics or no reporters could take away...the love of his three children. I remember watching the passing of Elvis Presley in Memphis. I tried to convey to my children how much BIGGER this was. Undeniably, this even beats out the funeral of Princess Diana of Wales. But in the passing of all these great people, I saw something that I hadn't witnessed since the death of President John F. Kennedy.

We all remember the images of Kennedy's son, John Junior, his hand raised in saluting his father. He probably didn't realize that his father was one of the most popular presidents ever elected. All he knew was that his father, who had picked him up and put him on his knee...the man who loved him unconditionally, the man he called daddy, would no longer be around. And it was today, while watching video online of the memorial service, I saw the face of Jackson's 11 year old daughter, Paris, come to the microphone in the Staples Center, surrounded by Jackson's family, and tell the world what exactly they should know about her father.

According to Paris, her daddy was the best father. Finally, with tears flowing freely she said, "I just wanted to say I love him so much." She collapsed into the arms of the Jackson family, sister and legendary star herself, Janet Jackson, holding her niece, and comforting her. Nobody could watch that clip and not realize that it didn't matter that her father was reportedly in debt to the tune of $500 million. It didn't matter to Paris or her brothers, Prince Michael & Blanket that her father may have done things in the past that would put his career and life in judgement. All they knew was that their daddy was gone. And how many of us have felt the same way when our fathers left this world?

My father was the best friend I could ever have. After the death of my mother, I was left with this man, who although I had lived with him for 30 some years, I knew very little about. During the five years we had together after Mom's passing, we got to know each other. We went to Cubs games together, we bought tools at the hardware store, we ate and drank together, and cried together at the birth of my own daughter. And when he died suddenly on Christmas Eve, I remember wondering what I was going to do...my daddy was dead.

I don't really care if you liked Michael Jackson or not and God alone will judge him for his actions on earth. If he really was the drug addicted pedophile that some thought he was, so be it. He cannot harm anyone any longer. But to his daughter, he was just Daddy. And I feel her loss.