{"id":809,"date":"2009-07-07T09:39:37","date_gmt":"2009-07-07T09:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html"},"modified":"2009-07-07T09:39:37","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T09:39:37","slug":"fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html","title":{"rendered":"Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"MichaelJackson.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/118\/import\/MichaelJackson.jpg\" width=\"147\" height=\"224\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span>In a scene reminiscent of Michael Jackson&#8217;s life, today&#8217;s memorial service at the Staples Center promises to be a media circus unlike anything LA has ever seen.<br \/>\nSeventeen thousand fans are expected at the arena, with thousands more watching the event in 50 theaters across the country. And police are gearing up for thousands more to crowd the streets around downtown LA in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the service on the video screens outside.<br \/>\nAnd in a most fitting coincidence, Ringling Bros. circus is scheduled to open tomorrow at the Staples Center; this morning the elephants will walk from the train station to the arena. Jackson would have loved that.<br \/>\nAs LA gears up for the final Jackson extravaganza, I&#8217;m left thinking about the man who was Michael Jackson. Over on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-12513-Rochester-Christian-Living-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Michael-Jacksons-last-event-today-at-the-Staples-Center-in-LA\" target=\"_blank\">Examiner.com Christian Living column<\/a>I&#8217;ve mused a bit about Jackson, but there&#8217;s one point that I really want to share with you:<br \/>\nMichael Jackson was just a man. A talented man, to be sure. But a lonely man amidst the crowds, a man with children he loved and friends who loved him and family that drove him nuts. A man with problems, but a man who put on a smile every day when he went to work.<br \/>\nIn other words, a man just like you.<br \/>\nAs fans work themselves into a frenzy over the King of Pop, take a moment to look around today and notice someone like Michael Jackson, someone who needs a friend, who may be struggling with personal demons and who needs a shoulder to cry on.<br \/>\n<em><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=GospelSoundcheck&amp;loc=en_US\">Click here to subscribe to Gospel Soundcheck by email <\/a>and have the Gospel Soundcheck headlines delivered daily to your email inbox. Visit me on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-12513-Rochester-Christian-Living-Examiner\" target=\"_blank\">Rochester Christian Living Examiner <\/a>column, and don&#8217;t forget to <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/joannebrokaw\" target=\"_blank\">follow me on Twitter!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a scene reminiscent of Michael Jackson&#8217;s life, today&#8217;s memorial service at the Staples Center promises to be a media circus unlike anything LA has ever seen. Seventeen thousand fans are expected at the arena, with thousands more watching the event in 50 theaters across the country. And police are gearing up for thousands more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mainstream-music-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson - Gospel Soundcheck<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson - Gospel Soundcheck\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a scene reminiscent of Michael Jackson&#8217;s life, today&#8217;s memorial service at the Staples Center promises to be a media circus unlike anything LA has ever seen. Seventeen thousand fans are expected at the arena, with thousands more watching the event in 50 theaters across the country. And police are gearing up for thousands more&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gospel Soundcheck\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-07T09:39:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelJackson.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joanne Brokaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson - Gospel Soundcheck","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson - Gospel Soundcheck","og_description":"In a scene reminiscent of Michael Jackson&#8217;s life, today&#8217;s memorial service at the Staples Center promises to be a media circus unlike anything LA has ever seen. Seventeen thousand fans are expected at the arena, with thousands more watching the event in 50 theaters across the country. And police are gearing up for thousands more&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html","og_site_name":"Gospel Soundcheck","article_published_time":"2009-07-07T09:39:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelJackson.jpg"}],"author":"Joanne Brokaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html","name":"Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson - Gospel Soundcheck","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelJackson.jpg","datePublished":"2009-07-07T09:39:37+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-07T09:39:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/#\/schema\/person\/80efa9662d1538af82f15e223a742cad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelJackson.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelJackson.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/07\/fans-say-goodbye-to-michael-ja.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fans Say Goodbye To Michael Jackson"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/","name":"Gospel Soundcheck","description":"Beliefnet Voices - 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