I remember leaving my Aunt Sylvia’s house in 1977 with my mother and hearing on the radio that Elvis had died. Mom cried the entire two hour trip back to our home, and my seventh grade brain thought how sad Lisa Marie would be, and how she was really lucky to be his daughter and have so many people love her. I am reminded of this event now, as a mother who grew up with Michael Jackson. I honestly didn’t know how sad I would be with his passing. I think I had some secret desire that he would one day be able to prove that he really was like Peter Pan, and that he never did anything but help children. That his upcoming (sold out, btw) tour would revive the joy of performances past and we could love him again. That his children would grow up and say “Dad really IS just a big kid, and he took really good care of us”.

So now it’s four days later, ten or twenty viewings each of all his old videos on youtube, and lots of tears for what was and could have been, for him and for his children. Sadness is giving way to anger now that I am seeing that his parents are going to take full custody of his children. Am I the only one who heard him say on television that his father beat him and his brothers repeatedly when they were children, and that his mother never did anything about it? And further, that he molested LaToya?

Joe Jackson admitted to the BBC in 2003: “I whipped him with a switch and a belt…I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick.” Thanks for clearing that up, Joe. Can you enlighten us on the finer points of LaToya’s claims? Your kids are consumate professionals, but have tragic lives – clearly you are not fit to parent. So far his idea of honoring Michael is to announce his new record company.

If the powers that be in California allow this custody placement to stand then we have a very broken system. I pray that some powerful sane person will come forward to help these children.