Michael Jackson Showed Support in 1989 to My Town of Stockton, California - Yahoo! Vo...

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Michael Jackson Showed Support in 1989 to My

Town of Stockton, California
Singer Made Visit, Brought Gifts After Cleveland Elementary School Shooting
Darrin Atkins, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jul 2, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

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Michael Jackson was there for us when it mattered most. He didn't have to, but that was the side of
him that many people did not know.
On a day when the City of Stockton was down for
the count, Michael Jackson showed up out of the
blue and resuscitated us back into existence. We
could not do the same for him.
After a madman with a rifle killed and injured
dozens of schoolchildren at Cleveland Elementary
in Stockton, California, nobody would expect the
world's biggest musical superstar to take notice
and make the effort to show up in person in
January of 1989.
Patrick Purdy may have destroyed many lives
that day, but Michael Jackson's presence helped bring more attention and compassion to the victims
than anybody else on planet Earth could have done in a hundred years.
I certainly remember the panic in the air around Stockton, the calamity and desperation of parents
stopping everything they were doing and racing to get their kids out of school immediately. I clearly
recall hoping desperately that the police got there fast and ended it in a hurry.
The incident in Stockton led to a quick assault rifle ban in California and was the beginning of
national campaigns and activism against these types of deadly guns, according to an analysis by
Reuters. Michael Jackson played a major role by his presence there that day.
Michael Jackson's Support
Michael Jackson, coolest pop singer on the planet, showed up in Stockton with "truckloads of gifts to
the children" and helped comfort survivors of the attack, according to Diane Batres who worked for
the district attorney's victim witness department.
The Record newspaper of Stockton has reported that Michael Jackson went far beyond the call of duty
when he visited the classrooms of Cleveland Elementary School and met with the injured survivors of
the shooting.
This is true. The residents of Stockton suffered a huge psychological blow that cannot be described,
one where one minute all is normal and the next minute a crazed maniac with an assault rifle is
shooting and killing innocent children at an elementary school. The rage, madness and intensity of
this cannot be compared.
The Future
It has been a little more than twenty years since the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in
Stockton, but I get chills every time I think about it because I lived in Stockton at the time, was a high
school student then, and it easily could have been my school that Purdy attacked.
Michael Jackson was exceptionally different and he had more than his share of troubles. But I don't
remember any of that stuff.

http://voices.yahoo.com/michael-jackson-showed-support-1989-town-3687452.html

12/16/2012

Michael Jackson Showed Support in 1989 to My Town of Stockton, California - Yahoo! Vo... Page 2 of 2
My most powerful and long-lasting memory of Michael Jackson was after that school shooting in my
hometown when he showed up and brought doses of mesmerizing happiness and cool comfort that
nobody else in the world could bring.
At the height of his fame, he reached out to a community that needed help in the worst way. The king
of pop is dead. Long live the king. Long live the king. Again I say, long live the king.
Sources
"Music icon made special visit to Stockton in 1989," Roger Phillips, Recordnet, June 26, 2009.
"Twenty years since a nightmare: Stockton, CA school shooting of 35.," Reuters, Jan. 15, 2009.
"Jackson remembered fondly for 1989 Stockton visit," DeomcraticUnderground.com, June 26, 2009.
Cleveland School massacre, Wikipedia entry

http://voices.yahoo.com/michael-jackson-showed-support-1989-town-3687452.html

12/16/2012