Positive websites and videos that celebrate MJ

[MJJLaugh]

Sometimes articles, blogs and other references are posted here and these articles, blogs and references are so negative in their hate-campaign, it makes you angry, sad, powerless and you wish you could slap some sense into people, right ?

So, I was thinking, if you want to take action, rather than focusing on the negatives, we can let the world see the positive of Michael Jackson, his musical genius, his charity, his random acts of kindness, his innocent, gentle, loving and caring nature and his astute business sense.

You can post these links on your Yahoo, Hyves, Twitter and Facebook page and send them to your friends. They are really special and I would like to share them with you.

Please feel free to add inspirational websites that you found or videos that are special in celebrating Michael Jackson!

A celebration of love, spirit, truth & faith. Celebrating his life, his legacy, and his humanity.
http://www.reflectionsonthedance.com/index.html

Seven was Michael Jackson's favorite number. Michael Jackson is Seven's favorite Everything. Websites with inspirational blogs, videos, quotes, articles, interviews and links to other websites
http://www.mjj-777.com

Fanship turns to Friendship - website about MJ also for non-fans to be better informed about the human being Michael Jackson was.
http://www.mjfriendship.de/en/

Who he was, Charitable facts, other endeavors, FAQ, Sources ( lists other MJ websites including of course MJJC)
http://www.thesilencedtruth.com/

Pictures

http://www.steady-laughing.com/

Don't be fooled by the name - has pictures arranged per year or per era
http://www.michaeljacksonforsale.com/

http://www.mjjpictures.com/main.html

Videos

[MJJLaugh]

The Oxford University Speech in March 2001

[MJJLaugh]

Need a laugh or a smile ? Look at these videos!

[MJJLaugh]

Want to listen to Michael Jackson radio all day ?

Just install Flash Player, no need to register at all

http://www.mjtunes.com/

Enjoy!

[MJJLaugh]

This is an article everyone should read: ( Posted earlier in News and Happenings)

http://www.independent.com/news/2009...h-and-tragedy/

We all feel such a sense of loss and sorrow at the passing of such a gifted and talented artist. He blazed his own trail in dance and music with his talent withstanding the test of time. Michael just made you want to sing and dance, which was perhaps his greatest gift to us. His career and accumulated body of work are the most documented, photographed, filmed and recorded in history. In that regard he will, like Elvis before him, and Marilyn Monroe, continue to entertain us and bring joy into our world each time we watch his videos or listen to his music. He is a cultural icon. We owe him an immeasurable debt of gratitude for the joy and laughter he has brought into our lives.

His life's work as a philanthropist is exemplary and includes support for over 30 charitable organizations including the Make-a-Wish Foundation, USA for Africa, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Heal the World Foundation, Wishes Granted Organization, Boys & Girls Clubs, the DARE program, YMCA, NAACP, United Negro College Fund, and the Michael Jackson UNCF Endowed Scholarship Fund.

On behalf of these and other charities he helped raise over $300 million. In addition he has donated over $50 million of his personal fortune over the years, but even more importantly spent generously of his time visiting cancer patients and burn victims at hospitals around the world. If he learned of a child in pain or suffering whom he could help, he did. While visiting a hospital in Budapest he met a 4-year-old boy desperately needing a liver transplant. This child had been abandoned by his mother and had lived in the hospital his entire life. Touched by his plight, Michael and his wife, Lisa Marie, visited the boy for hours and then pledged funds from Heal the World Foundation to cover all expenses related to the boy's transplant.

In 1985 he co-wrote the song We are the World with Lionel Richie and helped organize an amazing collaboration of 44 artists to record the song and create the video to raise funds to feed starving children in Africa. The hit single Heal the World and later the Heal the World Tour were such successful fundraising events that it is estimated these projects alone raised in excess of $100 million for the charity USA for Africa. He was involved with Hands across America, a human chain of 7 million people extending across the continental United States. In 2000, the Guinness Book of World Records listed him as the pop star supporting the most charities. He was only 42 years old.

Michael's professional accomplishments are well documented. His philanthropic works were something for which he kept a relatively low profile. He did it from his heart because he was a kind and loving person who genuinely loved children.

He wrote Gone Too SoonA for Ryan White, a pediatric AIDS patient suffering not just from a new and frightening disease but society's fear and ignorance of it. Ryan contracted the disease through tainted blood transfusions; Michael welcomed him to his home at Neverland after Ryan was banned from school.


After Michael suffered serious burns from an accident while working on a Pepsi commercial, he donated his $1.5 million insurance settlement to a burn center for children. In 1984 he visited children in the unit for burn victims at Brotman-Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles and also donated funds for a 19-bed unit at Mount Sinai New York Medical Center for leukemia and cancer research. He welcomed sick and dying children to his own home at Neverland Ranch, a fairy-tale land as depicted in the story Peter Pan. A 14-year-old boy suffering from cystic fibrosis was invited to Michael's home as the boy's dying wish. Michael spent time with terminally ill children backstage while on tour, and visited a 12-year-old who was terribly burned by his father in an act of revenge against his former wife. His willingness to help these children was heartwarming.

He created the Michael Jackson UNCF Endowed Scholarship Fund in 1985, a fund for students majoring in performance art and communication, providing money each year to students attending a UNCF member college or university. In February 1986 he heard that one of his biggest fans, a 14-year-old girl, had just undergone open heart surgery, so he called her and invited her to Neverland for dinner and a movie when she was feeling better. She was able to visit on March 8 of that year. The value of her smiles and laughter: priceless. It was simply another act of kindness by this generous man.

He supported the work of the NAACP particularly as it related to prejudice against black artists and donated many personal items for charitable auctions to raise funds for the education of children in developing countries. The proceeds from sales of the record Man in the Mirror were donated to Camp Ronald McDonald, a camp for children who suffer from cancer. In 1988 he presented a $600,000 check to the United Negro College Fund and donated tickets for three concerts in Atlanta, Georgia to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Somehow that year he found the time and energy to visit the Bambini-Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome to sign autographs and give candy to the children and donated 100,000 pounds to the hospital. He visited terminally ill children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. While visiting a unit for less critical patients he stayed longer than usual and told the children a story. On his 30th birthday he performed a concert in Leeds, England for the charity Give for Life, to help fund the immunization of children, and presented the charity with a check for 65,000 pounds.

In 1989 he made a compassionate visit to Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, where a few weeks earlier a 25-year-old madman had fired at the school's playground, killing 5 children and wounding 39 others. A horrible, senseless act of violence followed by a genuine act of kindness. He also invited 200 underprivileged children from the St. Vincent Institute for handicapped children and Big Brothers/Big Sisters to the Circus Vargas in Santa Barbara and then to his home in the Santa Ynez Valley to see his private zoo. Later that year he worked with the Wishes Granted organization to help a 4-year-old boy suffering from leukemia fulfill his wish of meeting Michael, and invited the little boy to a performance of Canadian acrobats.

In support of the Childhelp organization, Michael invited 82 abused and neglected children to Neverland for a barbeque, games, and a movie in 1990. He did the same for Project Dream Street, L.A. to help children with life threatening illnesses. He also hosted an event for 130 children in the YMCA's summer program of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

Always sensitive to social issues of poverty, hunger, and homelessness he paid a visit in 1991 to the Youth Sports & Art Foundation in Los Angeles which supports families of gang members dealing with drug-abuse. He talked to the children and presented them with a wide-screen TV and a financial gift. In December his office, MJJ Productions, provided 200 turkey dinners to needy families in Los Angeles.

He spent 11 days in Africa in February, 1992 traveling over 30,000 miles to visit hospitals, orphanages, schools, churches, and institutions for mentally handicapped children. Later that year he held a press conference at New York Radio City Music Hall to announce that he was planning a new world tour to raise funds for his Heal the World Foundation. This Foundation would support the fight against AIDS, Juvenile Diabetes, Camp Ronald McDonald, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

He quietly and compassionately defrayed the funeral expenses for Ramon Sanchez, who was killed during the Los Angeles riots, and the following year announced that he would donate $1.25 million for children who had suffered as a result of the riots.

He made large donations to the poor and needy in Munich, Germany and donated tour earnings of 400,000 pounds to charities in Dublin, Ireland. He visited children at the Sophia Children's Hospital in Rotterdam, presenting them with a check for 100,000 pounds. To the delight of the children at the Queen Elizabeth Children's Hospital in London, he visited with Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Euro-Disney.

In November, 1992, Michael helped supervise the loading of 43 tons of medication, blankets and winter clothes destined for Sarajevo, a war-ravaged country where children were being targeted by snipers. His charity, Heal the World Foundation, collaborated with AmeriCares to deliver supplies and resources totaling $2.1 million to Sarajevo, to be allocated under the supervision of the United Nations. He held a press conference in Tokyo at the American Embassy and presented a check for $100,000 from Pepsi, his tour sponsor, to Heal the World Foundation.

Throughout the 1990s Micheal continued to donate his time and energy to supporting children's charities all over the world. He invested millions of dollars building a children's retreat and amusement park with rides and a zoo at Neverland in an effort to "bring people happiness and remind him of the good things in life."

He continued to support the Boys & Girls Clubs and the DARE program amongst dozens of others. He was instrumental in Pepsi-Cola International. donating new ambulances to the Contacts One Independent Living Center for Children in Moscow and the Hospital de Ninos run by Dr. Ricardo Gutierrez in Buenos Aires. Deeply affected by conditions in impoverished nations, he donated part of his History Tour earnings to the renovation of a hospital in Manila and waved his personal fee for a Bombay appearance, donating $1.1 million to a local charity to help educate children living in slums.

Exclusive photographs of his son Prince were published in British magazine OK! and the 1 million pounds paid by the magazine were donated to charity. In 1998, while at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Michael was introduced to a 5-year-old suffering from cancer. He spent the afternoon with the child and went with him to the "Star Trek: The Experience" attraction. In 1999 he presented Nelson Mandela with a check for 1,000,000 South African rand for the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

Michael expressed his support for our troops in 2002 when he invited more than 200 Team Vandenberg members who had recently returned from overseas deployments, and their families, to Neverland to show his appreciation for the sacrifices of military personnel in his community. He performed at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at the Apollo Theater in Harlem helping to raise nearly $3 million towards voter registration.

How easy to say we want to change the world. He did. And he worked hard to do it. He brought immeasurable joy to children and sought to alleviate the suffering of thousands of people all over the world. It is this fact that makes the end of the life story of this exemplary humanitarian such a tragedy.

Can one even imagine the heartache it would cause such a good person, who loved children so much, to be falsely accused of hurting a child? It is obvious this man loved children in the most honest and decent way. To label him a pedophile, when he worked so tirelessly to help children and bring joy into their lives, is an unbelievable cruelty. Of all the thousands of lives he touched in such a positive way it is appalling to realize that when the rotten few attempted to extort money from him, the police and Santa Barbara County District Attorney office not only did not protect him, but turned on him and charged him with crimes that must have been the ultimate insult and most hurtful imaginable to him crimes against children.

In November 2003, over 60 sheriff's deputies and representatives of the district attorney's office, in 19 vehicles, descended on Neverland to serve a search warrant. The allegations against Michael had been made by the most unsavory of people clearly in an attempt to extort money. These people had approached him and asked for his help. When he helped them they repaid his kindness by virtually destroying his life and reputation. I read on the Internet yesterday that one of his accusers has now recanted his story. If the others have a shred of decency they will do the same. The false charges filed against Michael Jackson are another form of the police brutality so prevalent in California today.

And here lies the tragedy. We are conditioned to believe that in this great country we are "innocent until proven guilty." The truth of the matter is you are considered guilty as soon as you are charged, you are considered guilty as soon as you are arrested, you are considered guilty as soon as you enter the jail, you are considered guilty when you go to trial, and you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent.

In Michael's case, he was innocent, and found not guilty in a court of law of 9 felony charges, yet in the brutal court of public opinion he has somehow been tried and convicted. He experienced the worst character assassination of any celebrity of our generation. He has been ridiculed and scorned. He was made a public spectacle. He was a very private person humiliated by a very public trial. He was called names in the media and by the public and even now as we mourn the loss of this incredible man, the word "molestation" appears in almost every article or story about him. What a disgrace.

For such a sensitive artist and beautiful person with a kind and gentle heart this alone might have been enough to kill him.
-Linda Grasse, Santa Ynez

[MJJLaugh]

This is a speech he delivered to the Exeter Football Club in 2002.
In the beginning he's laughing because his speech blew away...something that would send most people into a state of shock, but not Michael Jackson! Great sense of humor!
He sounds very powerful and determined and he gets everyone to hold hands too.
What an amazing man!




This is a beautiful tribute to Michael Jackson by Buckethead




Enjoy!
Love

[MJJLaugh]

Here's a link to a website with the poems he has written. They are from his book "Dancing the Dream" which is filled with poems, essays and the most beautiful pictures of Michael!

http://bluemoon.fem.jp/dancing/d_poem_e.html

[TheBronx]

Ahh great videos!

Rare home video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCT2rc876UA




Funny interview

"At this age you are 24?"
"30"
"30?!! :"
"haha no 24 "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lao3_...eature=related

[windy09]

Hello all,

I posted this in another thread, but I'll post here too.

Check this video out.

Will.i.am says thank you to Michael

http://dipdive.com/member/iamwill/tv/#/~/videoplayer/0/undefined/51107/~/

Thank you for such a lovely message Will.i.am...

[windy09]

Here's a link to a website with the poems he has written. They are from his book "Dancing the Dream" which is filled with poems, essays and the most beautiful pictures of Michael!

http://bluemoon.fem.jp/dancing/d_poem_e.html

This is awesome MJJLaugh, thank you for posting.

[MJJLaugh]

The Article:
The day I met Michael Jackson
Last Updated: June 28. 2009 12:34AM UAE / June 27. 2009 8:34PM GMT




Maryam Ismail, a regular columnist with The National who now lives in Sharjah, met a relatively unknown Michael Jackson 40 years ago when she was a five-year-old girl growing up in New Jersey. Here she recalls the little boy she will never forget.

When I heard the awful news, my mind jumped back in time. Back 40 years to a hot, summer Saturday afternoon in Harlem, New York. Back to when I was a five-year-old girl on a day out with my mother. Back to the day I met a rambunctious, smart-alec, 10-year-old boy who wanted to show me his new dance moves.

My mother danced at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. It was – still is – the spiritual home of black American music, and it was her second home too. She just couldn’t stay away. My father was different, he liked to stay home, so she always took me with her.

When we got there we would do the rounds, first backstage, then the refreshment stand, and then front-row centre. That was our spot. It was there that I saw them all: the Chi-Lites, the Stylistics, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Delfonics, James Brown, and other stars that most people under 40 don’t know.

My mother knew nearly all the R&B stars of the Sixties and Seventies. It’s a tale involving impossibilities, love, and lots of unanswered questions.

My parents loved to tell stories, and this was one of theirs: one late night my mother was just getting off work at the Apollo when she met the handsomest man in the world – my father, who just happened to be out front, taking a break from driving his lorry.

Love at first sight made my mother trade in her dancing costume and her baby cobra for a life of love that lasted more than 30 years.

It’s funny how things start out one way and have a completely different ending. Our trip that day from our home in Newark, New Jersey, took two buses and two trains.

I was a little slow following my mother off the train, and got caught between the doors. “Grab my hand. I’ll pull you out,” my mother shouted. I really thought I was going to die, but she got me out before the train began to move.

It was one of the scariest days of my life, but that’s not the only reason I’ll never forget it.

Coming out of the subway we met this guy who was walking alone, as we approached the Apollo on 125th in Harlem. “See you later,” he and my mother said to each other after speaking briefly, and we continued on our way. I didn’t think to ask who he was; my mother knew so many people.

I loved the Apollo too. Walking under the marquee, I loved to look at the Wall of Fame, a ground-to-ceiling panorama of all the performers who had performed there since the 1940s.

The Jackson 5 were new then. Two years earlier they had won the regular Amateur Night at the Apollo, but they had still to be “discovered” by Diana Ross.

That day they were low down on the bill and performed in the early evening. When the curtain went up and this group of five boys stood there ready to dazzle the crowd, the audience seemed more curious than enthralled – even when they performed their soon-to-be hit, ABC. Who were they?

It wasn’t until later that evening, backstage, that I realised who that stranger on the street was: Joe Jackson, the family patriarch. In the spacious backstage lounge we met Mr Joe again. Then it clicked. He was with those kids on stage.

“Hey, I want you to meet someone,” he said to me. Next, here comes this kid with a huge afro hairstyle. He had changed out of the white shirt with the long, pointy lapels into a loose, golden brown turtleneck, two shades lighter than his chestnut brown skin.

Taking a few hops before he landed on the steps where I was sitting, he spoke without looking directly at me, as boys often do with girls.

“Hi, how ya doin’?”

“Hi.”

“Look at this.” He jumped down three steps at a time.”

I wasn’t impressed. “Is that all?”

“No, I can do more than that, you’ll see.”

And we did. Oh, didn’t we just. The greatest song-and-dance man of all time, maybe the greatest entertainer of all time.

But that day he smoked me. I guess that’s what I remember most about him. I was jealous of his wit. Not mad, just jealous.

Of all of the things Michael Jackson later became famous for, no one could imagine the kid that I met that day. But that’s the boy I can never forget.

The only proof that this other Michael ever existed is in the Jackson 5 TV cartoon, where he was always trying to get in on the action, and his big brothers were always kicking him out with: “This is not for you, small fry.” Can you see the irony of it?

How many times have I looked at the Michael we now know and wondered what happened? “What did they do to you?” I’ve always wanted to ask. When I met him that day he was more than just another talented kid, but he still seemed to know the difference between performing on stage and just being him.

When it was time to go that day backstage at the Apollo, we both said: “See ya later.” He waved, and he was gone. I never saw him again.

The Link:
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.

[MJJLaugh]

And now a special treat - warning : VERY CUTE KID!!!Cannot help but love him!!





Okay, more adorable cuteness, don't complain that I didn't warn you!

[MJJLaugh]

Any of you ever seen the Cereal thingy ??
It's hilarious. Cracks me up everytime!
Enjoy!

[MJJLaugh]

Thanks TheBronx aka Nish and Windy09 for your videos, loved all three of them!
Keep em coming!

[MJJLaugh]

Here are some quotes from Michael Jackson:

Love like Soap

Love is a funny thing to describe. It’s so easy to feel and yet so slippery to talk about. It’s like a bar of soap in the bathtub - you have it in your hand until you hold on too tight.


Silence is Real Dance

My dance is all motion without, all silence within. As much as I love to make music, it’s the unheard music that never dies. And silence is my real dance, though it never moves.


Stars Don't Die

They say that some of the stars that you see overhead aren’t really there. Their light takes millions of years to reach us, and all we are doing is looking into the past, into a bygone moment when those stars could still shine. "So what does a star do after it quits shining?" I ask myself. "Maybe it dies." "Oh, no," a voice in my head says. "A star can never die. It just turns into a smile...."

Songs and Dances Outlines

For me the form God takes is not the most important thing. What’s most important is the essence. My songs and dances are outlines for Him to come in and fill.



Wisdom of Children

Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts. This has so much to teach. If a child wants chocolate ice cream, he just asks for it. Adults get tangled up in complications over whether to eat the ice cream or not. A child simply enjoys. What we need to learn from children isn’t childish. Being with them connects us to the deep wisdom of life, which is ever present and only asks to be lived. Now, when the world is so confused and its problems so complicated, I feel we need our children more than ever. Their natural wisdom points the way to solutions that lie, waiting to be recognized, within our own hearts.




Source : http://www.mjquotes.com/quotes.htm