Go Katherine! Go Debbie! (Sorta)

Katherine Jackson rocks! I am absolutely delighted yet slightly concerned to hear to hear that Michael Jackson's mom and the biological mother of two of his three children have worked out a deal - the existing agreement which calls for the children not to be informed that family friend "Miss Debbie" is actually their mother, will continue and Debbie will drop her challenge to Katherine's guardianship of the kids in exchange for Joe Jackson staying away from them.

My concern is that a lie is being perpetuated - the kids don't know who "Miss Debbie" is and that's a strange choice when right now they're undoubtedly feeling adrift and lost without the one constant parent in their lives.

But that's overshadowed by my elation that Joe Jackson won't be allowed to continue the cycle of abuse that made Michael Jackson the tragic figure that he was.

Katherine and Joe have apparently been separated for years.

Michael always maintained his mother was a wonderful woman. I now heartily agree. She may not have been able to protect Michael, but she's protecting his children. She'll allow the existing relationship between the kids and their secret mother to continue. (Though how secret can it stay since the rest of the world knows it?)

And "Miss Debbie" may not be a mother in the way we define the term, but she's acting like one. She's put the children's best interests first. Bravo to both of them.

Can Someone Please Talk About Joe Jackson?

Okay, I'm sorry. In the words of Michael and Janet Jackson's performance of "Scream"...I just can't take this.

Michael Jackson was tragic. Whatever his personal demons, they were, by his own admission, a part of his stolen childhood. The pint-sized performer and his brothers (and, eventually, his sister) were pushed to become superstars by their father, Joe. Michael said in later years that his father beat him. And now Joe Jackson is being held up as the broken-hearted, bereaved father with no mention of how his behavior contributed to his son's travesty of a life.

Joe Jackson is not the model of black fatherhood. He is not a fine human being who held his family together. This is one father whose absence might well have been the best thing that could have happened to his children.

I've shaken my head, I've wanted to yell back at the TV. And this morning I saw that Michael Jackson's three children are currently in the care of his mother. And his father?

Maybe the Jacksons have split. If so, I have nothing more to say. Kathleen Jackson seems to have done the best she could for her kids short of taking their father out of the picture. I know that is a difficult choice for a mother and I make no judgements.

Joe Jackson is another story. Another stage father pushing his children to achieve what he didn't. Another drill sergeant turning children into performing robots, driven by his own desire for success and fortune. He was, by all accounts, a philandering, abusive father. He shouldn't be within fifty miles of his son's children.

This isn't about Michael Jackson. This isn't about Joe Jackson. This about three children who have undoubtedly had a pretty weird childhood and will have a struggle to achieve any sense of normalcy.

I don't know if there's someone in that family who can step up and try to offer those kids a stable environment. I hope there is. But I'm certain it's not Joe Jackson and I hope he's nowhere near them because I don't believe he deserves to be in their lives.

Second thoughts: I am absolutely horrified to see that I am in complete agreement with cable scream queen Nancy Grace on this. It makes me wonder if perhaps I'm totally wrong.