The Jackson Two

Michael Jackson's ex-wife and brood mare, Debbie Rowe, is suing him for monies he promised to pay her when they divorced in 1999: $1 million a year for three years and $750,000 annually for six more years. Little Debbie also received a house in Beverly Hills and a 1998 Ford Explorer. She says he stopped making payments to her in October, 2003.

In the lawsuit, filed July 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rowe seeks an immediate payment of $195,000 for attorney fees and $50,000 in living expenses so that she can continue pursuing her child-custody case against Jackson.

She is the mother of his two children, Prince Michael Joseph Jackson, 9, and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 8. She had agreed to visit them only once every 45 days and to give up her parental rights in 2001, but asked a judge to reinstate them in 2003 after she learned of Jackson's arrest on child molestation charges.

Has it ever been established how the children were conceived or whose DNA they actually carry? Maybe the petri dish should get some kind of payoff as well. I wonder what King Solomon would do. On the one hand we have a father (perhaps) who is, well, more than a tad strange and who has an unfortunate little habit (perhaps) of molesting children and likes to dangle them off balconies, while on the other hand we have a mother whose maternal instincts rival those of turtles who lay their eggs in the sand and wander off. What would Solomon DO?

We tend to believe as a society that the foster care system is a fate worse than death. We are bombarded with news stories and psychological treatises proclaiming that children are always better off with their own parents, no matter what. I think we need to reexamine this assumption very carefully and to question whether we should continue to operate under such a premise.

It is also believed that parents with untold riches should retain custody of their children because they can do so much for them. It's a great tragedy for any child to lose his parents and his identity because they are the two people on earth who are supposed to put his needs and concerns first. But it must be asked if in fact they are doing right by them, or if their own lusts and vanities are taking up so much of their time and energy that there is little left for their children. We need to establish and enforce standards that parents must abide by if they are to be allowed the privilege of raising their own children.

Social service agencies are overwhelmed by the vastness of this problem, the sheer numbers of children in need of help. Still, they must stop accepting that it's usually better to keep families together because it's so much easier than locking horns with parents, especially wealthy parents with excellent lawyers and household staffs that lie for them.

It's time to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of children, even those with celebrity parents. And perhaps it's the only thing that will force those parents to grow up and stop eating their young.