Will One Million Michael Jackson Fans Pledge to Light a Candle on June 25, 2010?

Soon, Michael Jackson will have been gone for one year. His hundreds of millions of fans around the world are working to ensure that the King of Pop will not only never be forgotten, but more popular and revered than ever.

Thanks largely to social networking technology, fans around the world can come together and form a "MichaelNation" of sorts.

I t sometimes seems that virtually everybody in the world knows who Michael Jackson is. But the late King of Pop's most loyal fans, those that love the man as much as his music, have the means to connect now that was not there just a few years ago. And they are playing a huge role in the shaping of his memory and legacy.

The official Michael Jackson group on Facebook has over eleven million members. And while that is an impressive number, even more impressive is the sheer number of grass roots, fan administered Facebook groups, pages and causes being driven to achieve great things.

As the sad milestone of Jackson's passing approaches, his fans are using Facebook and to a lesser degree Twitter to organize tributes to him.

One example is the Facebook group, "One Million Michael Jackson Fans Pledged to Light a Candle On June 25, 2010".

This group's ambitious goal is to find, in the span of about ninety days, one million fans of Michael Jackson who will promise to light a candle on June 25, 2010 at 2:26 Pacific Daylight Time.

While in many ways, this type of tribute brings comfort to the ones participating, it is also meant as a symbol of the support that Michael Jackson has received after his passing and the changing attitudes that the world has displayed toward the King of Pop.

While in the later stages of his life Jackson was forced to fight against ultimately unfounded allegations and a media that seemed to interpret his 'uniqueness' as 'strangeness', his fans, empowered more than any other generation with their own media and their own voice, are taking a stand.

While getting one million people to join any group in the span of ninety days seems nearly impossible, Michael Jackson fans may just be brave and amitious enough to to work for small miracle.

As the months have passed since Jackson's passing, his life's work, and in many ways his message, have been reevaluated by the world at large.

Recent months have seen Jackson feted at the Grammy's as two of his children accepted an award on his behalf and his song "Earth Song" was honored as the first ever 3D presentation a major awards show.

In addition, early in 2010, the National Film Registry accepted Jackson's landmark music video "Thriller" as the first short film ever in its archives.

So in many ways, Jackson's fans have the wind at their backs as they rally one million people to pledge to light a candle on June 25; still, though, that number is very ambitious. If Michael Jackson's fans reach their goal and get one million to pledge on Facebook to light a candle on June 25, it will be one more testament to Jackson's lasting legacy.