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- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!gumby!destroyer!cs.ubc.ca!mala.bc.ca!oneb!oneb2!lisa
- Newsgroups: alt.child-support
- Subject: Re: I HAD NO CHOICE ( was: Biological reaso
- Message-ID: <7q75VB2w165w@oneb2.almanac.bc.ca>
- From: lisa@oneb2.almanac.bc.ca
- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 09:07:29 PST
- References: <4y44VB1w165w@dogear.spk.wa.us>
- Organization: The Old Coot's (Spare) Almanac
- Lines: 93
-
- bobk@dogear.spk.wa.us (Bob Kirkpatrick) writes:
-
- > jsw@cray.com (Jon S. Wood) writes:
- >
- > > The women who is sexually, mentally, and physically abused by her husband
- > > should leave. Money and personal gain isn't on her list of priorities.
- >
- > No, but in many of these situations the women are also afraid of losing
- > their child, worried about where to go and how to survive. I've also
- > seen those who have a deep ingrained sense of loyalty --stand by your
- > spouse-- no matter what. When I began dealing with family law cases, I
- > found myself amazed that people weren't aware of the services and alter-
- > natives available to get them out of the circumstances they're in.
- >
- > > No person needs to be abused.
- >
- > Some masochists might disagree. (-: <sorry, couldn't resist>
- >
- > > Not all women are helpless.
- >
- > But those who cannot extract themselves from abusive circumstances are
- > a lot more helpless than you might imagine. If you think about it, the
- > helplessness they manifest is defined by their inability to leave.
- >
- > > It is also a crime to assault people.
- >
- > It's also a crime to falsely accuse people, but it's becomming a very
- > common facet of family law.
- >
- > > Abuse awards no one, it punishes assualters for those who can prove it in
- > > court.
- >
- > If it goes to court. Oftentimes it doesn't.
- >
- > > Assault is punishable.
- > > Mental abuse ISN"T.
- > > Mental abuse is a made for t.v. movie that display's women like feminists'
- > > wish them to be; victims who need MORE rights than others. Personally,
- > > I think feminists are mistaken. Women are much smarter than that.
- >
- > Whoa. Mental abuse (more commonly called Emotional Abuse) has a prevalence
- > in America unrivaled in any other country. It is an actionable offense, as
- > you pointed out earlier, if it can be proven in court. Emotional abuse has
- > many faces too. From telling someone repeatedly that they have no value,
- > to making threats with no substance, but are believed by the victim. Emo-
- > tional abuse is responsible for a tremendous amount of damage.
- >
- > To label it as a "made for tv movie" is hardly accurate, Jon. The abuse is
- > so destructive, that we're waking up to the fact that it's responsible for
- > a significant portion of child suicides. Earlier this year I had a young
- > boy as a client --he killed himself. His father wanted no part of him and
- > his mother was an alcoholic. He made it clear that he believed that he had
- > no value at all. Just when we got him placed with relatives, he committed
- > suicide. Emotional abuse is no 'movie.'
- >
- > > It is not a crime to claim large amounts of a husband's money because the
- > > boyfriends dick has more money (divorce awards women, punishes men all in
- > > the name of children). The system isn't working Amy.
- >
- > That's more or less true. (I don't argue that the system is broken, but I
- > take exception to your generalization.) PEOPLE are screwed by the family
- > law system all the time. Men are, and women are.
- >
- > If it's at all possible, we need to try to focus the anger of our divorces
- > towards the right party. Many of the women who use the system as a weapon
- > do so with the encouragement of that system. If the law was intelligently
- > written and approached, we'd see a lot less of the crap. Many of the men
- > who used the system as a weapon --or it's loopholes to slide, do so again
- > with the encouragement of the system. Action/reaction, cause/effect.
- >
- > It's weird science, to be sure. But grant me this --the overall number of
- > people hurt by our systems of family law vastly outweigh the feminists,
- > conservatives, or traditionalists. To help them in their quest to keep
- > the genders off balance and at each other's throats is a little foolish.
- >
- Bob,
-
- It's so very nice to see your posts on this net...Would you be
- willing to come up to Vancouver Island sometime to do a workshop,
- or similar, with some folks here who could, I think, benefit
- greatly from your insights?
-
- > Happy Holidays!
- >
- Merry Christmas and Happy '93 to you and yours, as well:-)
-
- Lisa
-
-
- lisa@oneb2.almanac.bc.ca (Lisa Lambeth)
- The Old Coot's Almanac
- Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
- Courtesy the old coot hisse'f!
-