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Rev. Al Sharpton’s Eulogy at Michael Jackson Memorial

“All over the world today people have gathered in love to celebrate the life of a man that taught the world how to love. People may be wondering why there’s such an emotional outburst, but you would have to understand the journey of Michael to understand what he meant to all of us. For those that sit here with the Jackson family, a mother and father with nine children that rose from a working class family in Gary, Indiana, they had nothing but a dream. No one believed in those days that these kinds of dreams could come true, but they kept on believing and Michael never let the world turn him around from his dreams. I first met Michael around 1970 at the Black Expo, Chicago Illinois; Rev. Jessie Jackson stood by his family until now and from that day as a cute kid to this moment, he never gave up dreaming. It was that dream that changed culture all over the world. When Michael started it was a different world, but because Michael kept going, because he didn’t accept limitations, because he refused to let people decide his boundaries, he opened up the whole world- in the MUSIC WORLD. He put on one glove, pulled his pants up and broke down the color curtain, when now our videos are shown and magazines want us on the cover.
It was Michael Jackson that brought Blacks and Whites and Asians, and Latinos together. It was Michael Jackson that made us sing ‘We are the World’ and ‘feed the hungry’ long before Live Aid. Because Michael Jackson kept going, he created a comfort level where people that felt they were separate became interconnected with his music and it was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa, and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other. Til later, it wasn’t strange for us to watch Oprah on television, it wasn’t strange to watch Tiger Woods golf. Those young kids grew up from being teenage comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be  the President of the United States of America. Michael did that, Michael made us love each other, Michael taught us to stand with each other. There are those who like to dig around mess, but millions around the world we are going to uphold his message. It’s not about mess, it’s about his love message, as you climb up steep mountains sometimes you scar your knee, sometimes you break your skin, but don’t focus on the scars, focus on the journey. Michael beat it, Michael rose to the top. He sang out his critics, he danced out his doubters, he out performed the pessimists. Every time he got knocked down he got back up, every time you counted him out he came back in. Michael never stopped, Michael never stopped, and Michael never stopped.
I want to say to Mrs. Jackson and Joe Jackson, and his sisters and brothers, thank you for giving us someone that taught us love, someone that taught us hope. We want to thank you because we know it was your dream, too. We know that your heart is broken; I know you have some comfort from the letter from the President of the United States and Nelson Mandela, but this was your child, this was your brother, this was your cousin, nothing will fill your hearts loss. But I hope the love that people are showing would make you know that he didn’t live in vain. I want his three children to know there wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway; he dealt with it for us. So some came today with Mrs. Jackson to say goodbye to Michael, I came to say thank you. Thank you because you never stopped, thank you because you never gave up. Thank you because you never gave out, thank you because you tore down our divisions, thank you because you eradicated barriers, thank you because you gave us hope. Thank you Michael, Thank you Michael, Thank you Michael”.

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