For Whitney...and Still For Michael - 2/17/12 (from 2/11/12)

"Michael and Whitney showed us the pinnacle of Black achievement in music...their mass appeal earned them the titles of King and Queen of Pop. But it was not their record sales that endeared them to us. It was their personalities. Beyond immense talent, they were still human beings. Mike was a fun-loving guy, and Whitney was a bubbly young lady with a stunning smile. As it would turn out, their humanness would eventually contribute greatly to their demises...and tarnish their once sterling reputations. However, such twists of fate do not resonate in the heart as they do in the mind. While we attempt to conceive how they let themselves go, what drugs she might've been on, and why Mike was on medication, our hearts are busy singing the songs that got stuck there so long ago, humming right along with the wonderful memories we have. Sister Houston now takes on a new life within us all, one of splendid moments that will be recounted to the tunes she made famous with her incomparable voice. The way that people like she and Mike could bring about feelings in us stretches far beyond what the media could ever make us believe. We know what the music did, what it does, and what it will always do. No pictures could be painted that would make us FEEL any less about her, though we might judgmentally THINK less. She now, or at least her spirit, presumably has peace. And with that said, we must find peace ourselves. How? Just by listening to those songs in our hearts and singing along."

-A. Lewis