Our
View: Jackson, parents share blame
In
the 10 years since Michael Jackson was last
accused of child molestation, he has not
exactly cleared his name. He seems weirder
than ever and his tarnished King of Pop
title blinds people a little less to his
stranger than fiction lifestyle.
A decade later, it is hard to believe that
parents still allow their children within
10 miles of the infamous Neverland Ranch
near Santa Barbara. How irresponsible could
a parent be?
Even
if Jackson did buy off the last kid so they
wouldn’t press charges, even if he
doesn’t really molest children, didn’t
anybody watch his television special? He
likes to share his bed with children. He
was holding hands with a young boy through
segments of the interview. Doesn’t
this pop up as a warning sign on people’s
radar?
Parents
do a lot of stupid things with their children,
Jackson himself dangled his infant son over
a fourth floor balcony in Germany in November
2002. Does this seem like someone who you
want to leave your children in the care
of?
But
even if Jackson doesn’t end up being
guilty of the crimes he is accused of, giving
wine to a 12-year-old boy and then molesting
him, the parents of that boy who allowed
him to be in the company of Jackson unsupervised
deserve a firm lecture about keeping their
children out of bad situations. How can
children learn to make good choices about
what kind of situations to put themselves
in if their parents let them go into these
kind of situations?
If
Jackson is guilty, this should be the last
time authorities allow Jackson to slip through
their grasp. If Jackson is this kind of
menace to children, and uses his home, a
supposed theme park and place to hold children’s
parties, to draw children within his grasp,
then police and parents must work together
to keep him away from children at all costs.
If this incident turns out to be another
where Jackson’s money allows him to
slip away then people need to have the brains
to keep young people away from Neverland
Ranch and educate parents about the danger
of the situation.
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