Web Letters: The 'Ick' Factor: Villains, Veils and Vision

If the reported eight-figure settlement in the child molestation case is correct, one would have to wonder why Michael Jackson's attorney, the superb Johnny Cochran, would ever counsel his client to pay in excess of $10 million in hush money to silence the accusation. Cochran would have never allowed his client to be extorted and slandered, so one can safely assume he thought that Jackson was guilty.

Whatever his tremendous talents were, we should not be praising and idolizing a pedophile. There's something quite repulsive about all the crying and all the adulation from these fans. A great musician, a great singer, a great dancer, yes. But that is all drowned out by his sickening and disgusting behavior with young boys. Inexcusable and worthy of a jail sentence (which he should have received years ago), and most definitely not praise.

Every day there are people working on cures for diabetes, cancer, aids, muscular dystrophy and heart disease. When they die, the only people attending their funeral or who will know about them are their family and friends. There are people mentoring to youths in the ghetto, volunteering to help the elderly, the infirmed, the poor, the diseased and those with drug addictions. No one will know when their time comes except their family and friends. It's long past the time when we should realize that our heroes are not the singers, dancers, rappers, actresses and actors or politicians or people who can shoot a ball thru a basketball hoop but they are and should be the unsung heroes who are working every day to make our communities, our lives and our country better.

Mark Jeffery Koch

Cherry Hill, NJ