Oh, Joe.

Joe Jackson has been a controversial topic even before MJ's death. He's been labeled one of the toughest, meanest, opportunistics dads of all time--all of which might be true.

While Joe was no Cliff Huxtable, he didn't love his children--all of his children--any less. One of my followers commented that it would have been nice if he [Joe] had tempered that intensity with some fatherly love.

As the adage goes: Actions speak louder than words. Ergo, Joe's love for his children is precisely what drove him to push them so hard to prevent their future empoverishment like he experienced early in his life. As proof, a few nights after MJ's death, on ABC's 20/20, not only did Jermaine send gratitude to his dad, he emphatically denied having been abused, and so have other of his siblings in past interviews.

What has happened is, laws put in place to protect children, has made the line of defining abuse very thin. I can't think of an adult who can't remember childhood ass whippings from their fathers or mothers, but who also grew up psychologically sound. Today, however, techniques such as time-out, punishment/grounding and withholding allowance calls for spankings to be considered abuse.

Jermaine noted some of his brothers and sisters "were more sensitive than others." And culturally, black males have always shown their love for their children through a firm tongue and strict discipline (i.e., James Evans, Fred Sanford, George Jefferson to name a few). Rarely did you see them bestowing terms of endearment or affection upon their children. But their love was no less than that of their mothers'.

And there it is. Every family, every story, has to have a "bad guy;" a scapegoat. For the Jackson's, Joe's it. But Joe's not so bad. As the custody hearings get underway to decide the fate (or destiny) of MJ's children, Larry King reported that it is Joseph Jackson who is making attempts to unite Kathering and Debbie despite their growning animosity.

Enough said. Right? So why don't we just "Leave Joe Alone?"