Considering our heroes

I've said recently that we choose weird heroes. I waver between seeing the truth of Michael Jackson as a perpetrator and a victim. People are choosing to see Michael Jackson as a misunderstood artist who has been falsely accused of crimes he did not commit (even though he settled a case for millions of dollars).

Was Michael like Woody Allen? Or Mike Tyson? Mike actually went to jail and people still see him as a hero. He was recently given a movie roll in The Hangover (I guess he's served his time).

I used to question why people supported Woody Allen and Mike Tyson in the face of such damning testimony. Usually, the victims were written off as setups, or temptresses.

It often seems that the real victims, mostly women and children, get ignored or worse, accused of false accusations, while the perpetrators get forgiven (even when they are obviously NUTS).

Maybe the truth is that we are each both perpetrators and victims; and this is what we really want and recognize in our heroes. Is this what I tell my children? Is this the epitome of lost innocence?

So Michael, may he rest in peace, may have victimized children, but he was an amazing talent that was definitely victimized by his father, by his industry, by the press, and by his AWFUL plastic surgeons (does anyone talk about how disrespectful his surgeries were and who was responsible for that?). And this same family and this same industry and this same press glorified Michael's death yesterday.

I wonder, where were these glorifications these past 15 years?

Debbie Rowe

I'm not a fan. I don't like the deal she made with a superstar, and if I were a judge I would question her motives in entertaining custody again, especially without "Blanket." But I bristle at the attacks such as, "No real mother would do this to her children!"

She was an egg donor. What's the difference between her and a sperm donor? Would we have this much vitriol for an absentee father who wanted to reenter his children's life? Maybe?

If you were Debbie Rowe and you could pull your biological children away from the custody of the Jackson family, would you? What better options do these children have?