I am nine years old. I remember sitting in Mrs. Hoag's class at Stadium Drive Elementary and someone had this record on their desk....a man with a white tiger. It was Thriller. It was Michael Jackson.

My friends and I learn the Thriller dance that year...we did it in front of our class. For my Tenth birthday my mom got me a pair of Jordache jeans (unhemmed, of course...and exactly two inches too long so I could cuff them) and the Thriller album on tape.

I don't know what I think about Michael Jackson in the later years. I have very strong feelings about what should happen to child molesters...and despite reports for and against Jacko, I don't think we'll ever know what he was really like. I do believe that talent does not know if you are a good person or a bad person. Talent does not distinguish. Michael Jackson had talent. He is an icon of my generation, for good or bad, and I'm really very sad to hear he passed today.