This message is not mine, but I needed to post it on my blog because I fully agree with it..
Please, take your time to read the whole message,
On Wednesday 22nd September 2010, @MJJNews said:
Since today was the International Day of Peace, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about something I never really mentioned before – because I was trying to keep my page positive, and because I didn’t know what to say about it as it was just making me upset – and that is the fights and divisions among the Michael Jackson fan community.
I’m sorry, this post will be long, but since I’ve never really talked about it, I have a lot of things to say about this.
Since Michael’s death, I just didn’t know what to think about this situation. It was just too overwhelming and painful for me. But last week, @MJMyWorld reminded me that on September 21st, it was the International Day of Peace. And then I started to think about Peace and about some fights or attacks that I had witnessed and I began to see some things differently.
I know all these fights and divisions are upsetting a lot of fans, because it just makes the grieving process even more painful. Instead of finding comfort and support in the fan community, we just find more pain and drama and more reasons to be angry, and that’s not what we want.
Many of you may think it all started with Michael Jackson’s death, but this is actually not true. I’ve been a fan for 13 years and I’ve been active in the online fan community for 7 years. And as far as I can remember, during these 7 years, I always saw MJ fans fighting with each other as much as they were getting along with each other. Fights inside a message board, wars between two fan clubs, fans violently attacking other fans, liars, posers, drama, all that was there before.
Even during the 2005 trial, a time when we all needed to support each other and to show our support to Michael, there was tensions, fights, name callings and so on. We were everything but united. Fans who sacrificed everything to be there at Santa Maria would call those who didn’t do it “fake fans”. Fans who stayed at home and saw the extreme behaviour of some fans in front of the courthouse would call all the fans there “crazy” and “embarrassing”. A group of fans who wanted to collect money to deliver plenty of roses to Michael in Neverland was violently attacked by many fans who accused them of stealing money from fans…. And that didn’t stop after the trial was over. We were sometimes so busy arguing and fighting with each other that we even forgot we were lucky to still have Michael after that trial and we took him for granted. In fact, I even remember witnessing a fight between fans who had JUST seen Michael Jackson in front of his hotel. A mob had occurred, a group of fans accused one fan from being responsible for the mob, the fan denied and they yelled at each other and called each other names, even though they had just had the incredible chance to see Michael. Needless to say it kind of ruined the mood for other fans who were on cloud nine after seeing Michael but who witnessed the scene right after.
So as you can see, even when Michael was there, even when he was RIGHT there, fans were already fighting. But the difference is that Michael was there. We had something to focus on, we had hope for the future, we had someone to cheer us up and to fill our hearts with positive feelings with any of his appearances or any of his smiles. Yes there were fights but they were not as important, and the community was not exactly divided although we had some difficulties getting along with each other. And when someone or a situation was annoying us, it was easier to just decide to laugh about it.
Now, Michael Jackson fans talk about unity. They talk about all getting along with each other. They talk about “L.O.VE.” They talk about fighting together for the same cause and the same goal (something called “Truth and Justice” although each fan seems to have their own definition of these two words). And I wonder if this is possible to achieve. Has the fan community ever been “united”? Is it even possible in the future? Aren’t we all too different? Michael Jackson is so universal that no other artist in the world has a fan base with so much diversity: children and grandparents, rich and poor people, people with different nationalities, cultures, sexual orientations, spiritual beliefs, political ideas, life experiences, educations, values, philosophies… We all love Michael Jackson but differently and for different reasons. Uniting Michael Jackson fans is actually as hard as uniting people of the world.
But yes, maybe we can reach that goal, after all Michael himself believed in it. He believed Peace and Unity were possible. In fact, I think at some point, fans will get really tired of the current situation among the fan community – especially if it gets worse – and will try to think about ways to get out of that situation and to follow another road.
And this could actually be very interesting. Imagine if we MANAGED to do that. Maybe not to achieve Peace and Unity, not right now, but at least to get out of this vicious circle and to make the situation better. Imagine if individually and collectively, we just decided that it’s enough, that our hearts can’t take more hate and fights and drama, that we have to find a way to change that.
Yes we are all different, but there’s one thing we have in common: we all have strong personalities and we partly owe it to Michael himself. Being a Michael Jackson fan is more complicated than just hanging posters in our bedroom and enjoying his music. When it comes to Michael Jackson, everything is complex and every aspect of him and his life can teach us something about the world and about ourselves. We all had to think hard about many things and to form complex opinions about subjects most people don’t even think or care about. And one of them is Peace. We think a lot about it, a lot more than we realize. We want it. We just don’t know how to get it, but at least we think about it.
If we want Peace, we have to start with ourselves. It starts inside of us, inside our hearts.
And maybe at first we shouldn’t even try to think about finding Peace. Maybe it’s too early. There is a world of possibilities between war and peace, between hate and love and between rejection and acceptance. Things like tolerance, respect or understanding. Respect is far from being love, yet even respect is not that easy. So maybe before we talk about all loving each other as Michael would want, we should just try to drift away from hate and rejection and get closer from tolerance and respect.
And maybe even that is too difficult to reach for the moment. But there’s one thing we can all do, and that’s understanding.
I believe that even though we’re all different, we all share a special bond. We all went through the same things, and we all have this special ability to understand how another fan can feel. Even though it’s not exactly how WE feel, we just know, we just can imagine how another fan can feel. If there’s one person in the world a fan can easily understand, that’s another fan.
We’re all different and we are all influenced by our own life experiences and our own personality when we react to things that happen in the MJ world, but somehow it’s not so hard to imagine that we COULD be a little different and we could react differently. Or that, not so long ago we were different and we had different feelings and opinions.
Objectively, we can say that nothing is positive in Michael Jackson’s death and nothing really positive can come out of it. There’s nothing positive about this, it’s just tragic, and it seems that everyday something new happens that make his death even more tragic and unacceptable. Some may look into themselves and rely on spiritual resources or other things to not let themselves be overwhelmed with pain, to find some inner peace and to make that something positive comes out of this. But others will just feel pain and anger and nothing can comfort them. And obviously they won’t see things the same way and they will react differently.
Some of these reactions or opinions will even hurt others and cause more pain. But if you look into it, in fact I think you can always understand why a fan reacts a certain way or says certain things.
Understanding does not mean approving. That’s what’s so great about understanding and that’s what makes it so easy. You don’t have to agree with that other fan, you don’t have to approve their actions or reactions, you don’t have to accept anything about that fan. You don’t even have to talk to that fan. But you CAN understand that fan.
If you don’t, that’s probably because you DON’T WANT to understand. And that’s exactly how I was before. I just didn’t want to understand. I just didn’t want to “waste my time” trying to understand someone who was so different and with whom I strongly disagreed. But then, I decide to try it. I was just too tired of only feeling hate and rejection for other fans, it was hurting me. So I though why not trying to understand them before rejecting them? Why not trying to understand where they’re coming from, why they have this opinion and how they feel?
I found out understanding other fans was a lot easier than I thought. And I also found out it made me feel better. It automatically calmed me down and it made me feel more peaceful. I wasn’t hating or rejecting these fans anymore, I was less hurt with their opinions or actions, I was just disagreeing with them and that was all. So, from now on, this is what I’ve decided to do.
I won’t ask you to do it too, I’m not in a position for this, but I can only recommend you to give it a try, and maybe you can tell me if it helped you too.
Next time you say “I can’t understand how that fan can say such things”, just stop and think “Actually I CAN understand. I disagree, but I can understand.”
Today it would have been so easy for me to say “Let’s all love each other instead of hating each other, think about Michael’s message, let’s stop fighting, that’s not what he would want.” But I know it’s not that easy to do, not even for me.
But I found a way to at least find a better balance between confusion and peace. As I said, if we want peace, it starts inside of us, so it will be different for each person and each person can find their own way to get closer to peace.
Now imagine that we manage to find ways to move away from hate and rejection, and thanks to understanding, to get closer to inner peace, and then to get closer to peace amongst us. All that because we all love Michael and we know we can’t continue like that and we want to change. If we really manage to do that, then we will literally become the best Peace advocates for the world. This unique experience will teach us how to deal with conflict and hate in other contexts and maybe we’ll really be able to help the world. So I’m not that worried about the fan community. I know we can overcome it. I really believe that someday, Michael Jackson fans will be known for being philanthropists, activists, volunteers, humanitarians and peace advocates, and not just for being music and dance lovers. At some point, charities and organizations won’t even be surprised to get so many donations from MJ fans, to have so many volunteers who are MJ fans or to see MJ fans creating their own foundations. In fact, it already started.
Micha (@MJJNews)
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"It's been my dreams since I was a child to somehow UNITE people of the WORLD through love and music" ~ Michael Jackson ~
Peaceful be heaven
peaceful the earth
peaceful the Broad Space between
peaceful for us be the running waters
peaceful the plants and herbs
peaceful to us be the signs of the future
peaceful what is done and undone
peaceful to us be what is and what will be
May All To Us Gracious be
[from "Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection", released on November 17, 2004]
