Comment: Of course we need to talk about Michael Jackson

Like millions (billions) of others, my kids and I have been watching a lot of Michael Jackson videos these past two days. (I’m grateful they took out the car-smashing sequence from “Black or White.” Not sure how I’d explain that to my kids.)

Michael Jackson was truly “the face of MTV,” a groundbreaking African American artist, extraordinarily talented and influential throughout the world, and a very distressed individual.

Look, I don’t know what happened at Neverland with those kids, and neither do you. We’ll never know now. I’m not excusing history for bad behavior, but do we even know what he allegedly did? I find Kobe Bryant way more creepy, or Mike Tyson, in terms of the alleged crimes they were involved in.

Don’t get me wrong, if anyone tried to manhandle my kids, I’d kick their ass.

But we don’t know what happened, and I suspect it wasn’t the hideous and blasphemous "Catholic priest experience." (I hope not.)(Don't get me started on that.)

Michael Jackson’s dad beat him regularly, he had to grow up in front of the world and never got to be a child. He had to be seriously suffering from arrested development. Look at Neverland. It’s a theme park. On top of this, he got major burns in an accident and got hooked, it appears, on painkillers. Is it any wonder he became increasingly eccentric?

The other worrisome aspect was his physical transformation. What was really going on there? Was he sick? What was he trying to achieve? Personally, I think he was literally trying to disappear. Just fade out of existence. Because he could never, ever have a normal life. So he had a mysterious freaky one, and waited for it all to fade away.

Isn’t it fun to listen to non-shrinks analyze the recently departed? I know, I know, I don’t know anything either.

I just really hope there is someone stable and strong to be there for his kids. No matter who he is or what he’s accomplished, losing a parent is a child’s worst nightmare.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson.