Michael Jackson once said he would slit his wrists before ever hurting a child. I believe him. Here’s a few examples of his humanitarianism:
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In 1985, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote the song ‘We Are The World’ together in order to combat poverty in the Third World. The record sold over ten million copies worldwide and raised $63 million+ for humanitarian aid in Africa and the US.
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February 6th, 1988. ‘Man in The Mirror’ entered the pop charts. Jackson donated all of his royalties from the single to Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, a camp for children who have cancer.
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December 1988. Jackson paid a visit to 12 year old David Rothenburg, later known as Dave Dave. who was hospitalised after being doused with kerosene and seriously burned by his father five years previously. Despite an estimated fifty operations, Rothenburg remained disfigured. The star paid for all necessary further operations. They remained friends and Dave Dave said Michael was like a father to him.
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7 February, 1989. MJ visited the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California. Three weeks earlier, a gunman had open fired 100 bullets in the school playground, killing five children and wounding 39 others before turning the gun on himself. Jackson spent time comforting the children and helping them to think positively again.
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Eight-year-old Thahn Tran, who had lost his younger brother during the massacre, spoke about the effect MJ’s visit had on him: “I didn’t want to go back to school, but Michael made it all right again. If he goes there, it must be safe. Michael is my friend and I’m very glad.”
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May 6th 1992. Michael paid the funeral costs for 9 year old Ramon Sanchez. Sanchez was killed by a stray bullet during the Rodney King riots in California and the boy’s parents could not afford to bury him.
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November 25th, 1992. Michael granted the wish of young David Sonnet, who he met through the Make A Wish Foundation, an organisation that grants wishes to terminally ill children. Sonnet had suffered a brain aneurysm at the age of 8, leaving him unable to talk or walk. Jackson invited the boy and his mother to his Neverland home and later, his mother credited the singer’s music for helping her son to recover from a coma.
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In December 1993, Jackson and his newly formed ‘Heal the World Foundation’ supported the UK’s 'Operation Christmas Child’ in airlifting over 100,000 gifts, toys, sweets, pictures and school items to needy children in Sarajevo.
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1994. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley met a four year-old boy in Budapest. Bela was diagnosed with a congenital liver disease that discolored his skin and prevented him from digesting food. Without a transplant, doctors gave him one year to live. The estimated cost for the transplant was $120, 000. MJ pledged funds from Heal the World, the charitable foundation he created in 1992 to cover all expenses related to Bela’s transplant. Bela is alive and well and says he cried like he lost a father when Michael died.
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February 1995. MJ made a private request to attend the funeral of Craig Fleming, a two year old boy whose mother threw him over the side of a Los Angeles bridge along with his four year old brother before jumping to her death. The mother and four year old survived. Jackson contributed towards the surviving youngster’s medical expenses and founded a special trust fund for his ongoing care.
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November 1, 1996. Michael Jackson donated most of the proceeds from his HIStory concert in (then) Bombay, India, to the poor. When travelling from the airport, he stopped the car several times to dance with, pick up and hug people on the streets.
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Later this same month, he visited an orphanage and a school for blind children in Thailand. At the orphanage, he distributed toys and gifts to the children before leaving a donation of $100,000. An orphanage spokeswoman at the time said, “They don’t know him as a pop star. To them he is just a very nice man who came here to offer hope.”
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Michael was a humanitarian. He was just a good, kind, over trusting man. He just put his faith and trust in the wrong people.
There’s so much we don’t know because people are always coming forward of the kindness he gave them, but you can read some more of what he did here:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/14283749/Michael-Jackson-s-Humanitarian-Efforts-1979-2003
“Please be gentle with your body. It loves you more than anyone or anything in this world. It fixes every cut, every wound, every broken bone, and fights off so many illnesses, sometimes without you even knowing about it. Even when you punish it, it is still there for you, struggling to keep you alive, keep you breathing. Your body is an ocean full of love. So please, be kind to it. It’s doing the very best it can.”— Your Body is an Ocean | Nikita Gill (via northernmade)
(via scarlettsoup)
