Where were you when Kennedy was shot? When man first landed on the moon? When Elvis died? The World Trade Center collapsed on itself? Where were you when you heard the news that Michael Jackson died?

Ok, so maybe I am being a little melodramatic and I apologize. But judging by the way the world has reacted to the King of Pop's death, his passing on June 25th may have been completely devastating to more than a few of you. There were a myriad of ways people took the news. One friend of mine took the news like they lost a good friend and was depressed for days. Another friend texted as many people as he could with the following, and I quote: “Michael Jackson died today. I can't believe they took him to Children's Hospital. F--- that child rapist.” Judging from the rhetoric it is safe to say that that friend is still in the angry stage of the coping process. But no matter what you thought of him, Jackson's death left an impression on the world that people are still adjusting to. Everybody copes with grief in their own way. Some cry out expletives over the textosphere, some make documentaries using the footage shot a week before his death.

As for myself, I took the news pretty well since the simple fact remains that Michael Jackson is not really dead.

Like any good conspiracy, (see the top five above) my evidence is mostly hearsay and conjecture. But if logic is my true friend, and I think it is, it will be infallible as I present to you my reasoning.

1) Bankruptcy: According to the October 2rd issue of Entertainment Weekly, celebrity death is big business for anyone associated with the newly deceased estate. After Jackson died, sales of his albums picked up to $100 million*, not to mention the instant popularity of the new documentary “This Is It” which chronicles Jackson's last days. We must not forget that the reason that Michael Jackson came out of seclusion and announced his new tour was because of a looming bankruptcy and other money woes connected to his more infamous behavior.

It does not need a stretch of the imagination to believe that Jackson never considered faking his own demise in order to get in on his life insurance policy and the profits from the huge record and movie sales that his death created (even Jimmy Stewart succumbed to that idea, and he had an angel to help him). He could shake off his debt and be able to bask in the warmth of economic security once more, all the while laughing it up because he beat the system and stuck it to the man.

2) “It don't matter if you're black or white”: These words never rung truer for any other person in the universe. Over the course of his life, the world watched as he drastically changed himself to fit what he believed to be perfection. There are many explanations of these drastic changes, from the skin condition vitiligo and Lupus, to Jackson bleaching his skin and going through multiple surgeries. It is easy to connect his drastic physical changes to his appearance to his mental state. Judging by the myriad media interviews replaying over the past few months, it is safe to say that Jackson had a few mental problems that needed to be worked out, including body image issues.

Now, I'm not saying that Jackson had no mental issues that he took out on his body. What I am proposing is that he used his psychosis to a specific purpose. Over the years, he has changed his appearance so drastically that if we were to see him as he originally was (especially after aging 20 years) we would be unable to recognize him. In essence, he would be invisible in plain sight. All it takes is a little planing and patience. He can change his look so that when he is "gone," he can reemerge as a normal person and can continue to enjoy his family and his life without the camera watching him. He has, in essence, worn a mask for the last 20 years so that, when the time is right, he can remove it and be normal once more.

We all cope with grief in different ways. Maybe I am just in the denial stage of a grief I didn't know I had. Like Elvis before him, Jackson was a large influence on the culture of the American people, and maybe the world as a whole. And like Presley, his legacy as a pop recluse, tortured and energized by his popularity can make it easy to dream of a way that he could get out. To find a way for the masses to lose sight of him so that he could finally have the peace in his life that he craved, and may have even deserved.

As the final video of Michael Jackson is finishing its rounds on the big screen, I tempt anybody to look deeper at the footage. If crime shows have taught me anything, it is that in order to accuse someone of anything, you need both motive and means. Jackson had both near the “end” of his life. He had to do a concert to pay his debts (motive) and had changed himself so drastically, we would not be able to recognize him in any other state (means). Whether you believe me or not, is your choice. All I know is in a world where we don't miss someone until their gone, I would like to think that somewhere Michael Jackson is seeing how much he has influenced our lives, and is finally at peace, whether living or dead.

* Statistic taken from Entertainment Weekly, Oct, 2nd 2009. By Benjamin Svetkey.