tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38748905008187956012024-03-13T17:42:43.688-04:00Writing Truth To PowerWriting can help to protect children from abusive parents, lawyers, clinicians, custody courts, and child protective agencies that are determined to reunite children with their abusers. How can we help each other write about these painful truths in ways that bring hope and healing?Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-43617827492940321352012-05-22T13:53:00.001-04:002012-05-22T13:53:33.051-04:00Writing Tools from Roy Peter Clark<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNxVeKMZA1h9Njzfdq9DwUC7J1zlOo82DpjwvmkkNjrXyA_gPitgZRvtGIGaI0upLCuACP1pthGLYNouBCxdmTWrlsrbtQjvcFJkDi7Sk90RKwPsiConJgblOy9iY4_dIb9UwN6UtSIck/s1600/143734340.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNxVeKMZA1h9Njzfdq9DwUC7J1zlOo82DpjwvmkkNjrXyA_gPitgZRvtGIGaI0upLCuACP1pthGLYNouBCxdmTWrlsrbtQjvcFJkDi7Sk90RKwPsiConJgblOy9iY4_dIb9UwN6UtSIck/s1600/143734340.JPG" /></a></div>
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Cheers for Roy Peter Clark, who has produced a great tool box for all of us who love to improve our ability to write truth to power: <i>Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer</i> (Little, Brown and Company, 2006) 272 pages, hardcover, $19.99 <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>ISBN-13:</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">978-0316014984 </span>(also in paperback, and you can often find low prices at half.com . . . )! <br />
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I do not know this author and am not being paid to promote his book, but I learn (or re-learn) something every time I open it. In addition to short, beautifully written "strategies," he includes "workshop" exercises to practice alone or with a writing group.<br />
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Anyone who has lost a child to a corrupt cabal in custody court needs a support group anyway, and a writing-truth-to-power group (or just one writing partner) may help focus grief and outrage in productive ways. Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-67884507995554686332011-03-18T14:27:00.001-04:002011-03-18T14:31:18.029-04:00Healing Through "Art From My Heart"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEOeP4uWuXgbtalOdAImY5gRYLbYhr2hLYA5lhmcQsVjy6M-INc7LPouC0tEVUlMICAu1CfAC8tYkG6mRd1ujx8OBaakOmZ2-yWK3ck6LROM7opvDza3WcKzTD1BrNAlBVZSPYmoTXJo/s1600/Cover-for-Web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEOeP4uWuXgbtalOdAImY5gRYLbYhr2hLYA5lhmcQsVjy6M-INc7LPouC0tEVUlMICAu1CfAC8tYkG6mRd1ujx8OBaakOmZ2-yWK3ck6LROM7opvDza3WcKzTD1BrNAlBVZSPYmoTXJo/s400/Cover-for-Web.jpg" /></a><br />
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<i>This was posted here: <br />
http://timesupblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/healing-through-art-from-my-heart.html</i><br />
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Posted: 17 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PDT<br />
By Rae Luskin<br />
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April is Child Abuse Awareness Month.1-4 girls and 1-6 boys will be abused by the time they are 18. Many abuse victims suffer the violation in silence, either blaming themselves or being afraid no one will believe them. The survivors of childhood sexual abuse experience a high rate of physical problems, mental health issues and social problems. They suffer from guilt, shame and low self esteem. The emotional and physical consequences can last for a lifetime. <br />
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The majority of childhood sexual abuse cases go unreported. It is estimated that there are 39 million survivors in the United States. It is estimated that 30% of survivors never tell anyone. We have to ask ourselves why children don’t tell. <br />
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1. Children are not sure who to tell. What if one of the parents is the abuser, what if mom is sick or one of the parents is dead. <br />
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2. No chance to be alone to tell <br />
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3. Caregivers do not listen <br />
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4. Parents discourage conversations about sex <br />
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5. Oftentimes children do not know what to say: they are too young or they have no words to describe it. <br />
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6. Abuser tells them; no one will believe you, you will be taken away from your family; you will never see your parents, friends or siblings again. No one will love you or marry you. <br />
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7. Abusers threaten to kill their family, their pet or themselves. <br />
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8. Children worry that if they really knew me their friends and family will reject them. They will think “I am disgusting, broken or dirty”. <br />
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9. Children worry that their parents will feel guilty if they could not protect them; other people will blame their parents. <br />
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10. Fear the abuser will be put in prison; will get hurt or killed. <br />
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11. Children may think what is the point, nothing will change or it will only make it worse. For instance, Laurie was about 12 when she told her mother that her brother was molesting her and her mother said “it is your problem handle it.” So Laurie lived with a chair under her door until she could leave home. <br />
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12. At first a child may be confused. They may ask themselves: Is it really happening? Is it wrong? They may think this is normal. They may believe they are only one experiencing this. They believe they deserved it, it was their fault they did something that caused this or they are being punished for something they did. Finally, they are ashamed to admit they enjoyed the sexual stimulation or they loved the affection, warmth and attention. <br />
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So now the question becomes what we can do as an individual, a friend or family member to encourage children and adult survivors to come forward and share their secret. <br />
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Educate your children about appropriate sexual behavior and what constitutes unwanted or uncomfortable physical contact. Tell them that it is always safe for them to come to you. You will believe them. Help children practice responses to potentially dangerous situations. Tell them they have a right to decide how and when anyone can touch them. <br />
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You can help the adult in your life. Do not say it is in the past get over it. Do not scold or shame them. Do not suggest it was their fault. Instead listen with compassion, validate their pain and remember they need to work at their own pace. It could take a year or it could take 40 years. You need to create a climate that is safe for them to take the journey. <br />
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Finally, Challenge the media or advertising when they sexualize children! Support legislation that mandates we teach safe touch in schools! Ask what policies and protocols are in place at school, work or your religious institution! If you suspect abuse you must report it! Tell the doctor, the police, call your local protection agency or 1 800 25 ABUSE, the National Child Abuse Hotline. <br />
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If you want to share your story/secret I encourage you to join my challenge. Transform Abuse One Story at a Time. In the next year I want 100,000 courageous men and women to share their truth through creative expression; it can be a poem, a story, a piece of art, music or dance. By sharing your story you can take back your power. Break free of guilt and shame. Release the negative voices in your head. Connect with others in an authentic way. <br />
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If you are looking for a loving and supportive mentor who has walked this dark and scary path herself as a guide; apply for a free discovery session. You do not need to be an artist. No creative experience is necessary, only a willingness to play, explore and experiment. Apply at www.thehealedheart.com. <br />
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The Essence of Who I Am <br />
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You hurt my soul, you broke my heart <br />
I curled up into myself and became small and insignificant <br />
I was sure I was unlovable, defective and unworthy <br />
Afraid of my secret shame, <br />
My cry for help a mere whisper <br />
Till I found my voice <br />
SCRIBBLE THE PAIN, DRAW OUT THE HURT, COLLAGE THE FEAR, DANCE THE ANGER, JOURNAL THE SADNESS, TELL MY STORY <br />
Transformation, a healed heart <br />
I am enough, I am loveable, I am whole and complete <br />
I am strong and courageous <br />
I take a stand and boldly declare <br />
I am a magnificent living work of art <br />
A creation song of love, joy and possibility <br />
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Rae Luskin is an artist, teacher, author and community activist and a sexual abuse survivor. She is available for speaking and workshops. Find out more at www.raeluskin.net. Special price for ART FOR MY HEART now $16 plus shipping.Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-84409925543153373182010-09-13T13:19:00.012-04:002010-09-13T13:43:41.436-04:00Crime Reports: The importance of prosecuting sexual assault within the familyhttp://thecrimereport.org/2010/09/13/the-unspoken-crime/<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The U.S. justice system is failing victims of incest, a Crime Report investigation shows.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Unspoken Crime</span><br />By Cara Tabachnick <br />Monday, September 13th, 2010 5:56 am<br /><br /><br />John Mark Clubb was six when his father, a Baptist preacher and high school guidance counselor, came into his bedroom and violently raped him. The abuse continued until he was nine, but it wasn’t until he was 29 that he remembered what happened.<br /><br />“I’ve struggled with sex, anger and alcohol to try and fill the empty feeling and mask my anger,” said Clubb who left home at 17 to join the Marine Corps, and is now a commercial airline pilot. When he finally gathered the courage to tell his family. they rejected his story and accused him of lying.<br /><br />But worse yet, when Clubb went to the District Attorney’s office in Tampa, Florida, where his 89 year-old father still lives, he was told that his case could not be prosecuted. Years later, there was no evidence of the crime except for Clubb’s word against his father’s. And incest trials are notoriously hard to try, making prosecutors hesitant to accept these difficult cases.<br /><br />But John’s story as an incest victim is not unusual. It is hard to find a more serious crime than the rape of a child; yet when a family member is the perpetrator, justice is sometimes hard to achieve. Child welfare advocates say that the safeguards in place to protect the child usually fail. Research suggests they are right.<br /><br />Even if John’s case, for instance, had come to the attention of authorities when he was still a minor, the odds that his father would have been punished for his crime remain slim. That’s because, according to a 1990 study by University of South Florida criminologist Lorie Fridell, prosecutors tend to defer or divert complex incest cases to child protective services who can provide for an alternative, non-court resolution, such as therapy or community service, in an effort to keep the family together.<br /><br />Other research has drawn a similar conclusion. A 1993 report of the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, found that more than 90 percent of all child abuse cases do not go forward to prosecution. Moreover, the study showed many suspects are released without further intervention by law enforcement or the justice system.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">No Help From Police</span><br />And survivors like John, who try to find justice later on in life, by going straight to the police, are often out of luck. Sometimes the evidence is judged insufficient or questionable. Or there are statutes of limitation that apply.<br /><br />Or, in some cases, prosecutors shy away from taking on complex incest cases, one of society’s most emotional and secretive abuse.<br /><br />“The criminal justice response to child abuse needs to be better,” says Suzanna Tiapula, Director of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, a program of the American Prosecutors Research Institute.<br /><br />Yet the blame cannot be laid solely at the feet of the criminal justice system.<br /><br />Even more troubling, Child Protective Services, the state agencies charged with protecting the welfare of children, are in many cases can be unprepared to properly investigate and collect evidence on these sensitive complex sexual abuse cases or have not been adequately be trained thoroughly to detect sexual abusive, thus possibly leaving thousands of children in dangerous situations, said experts interviews.<br /><br />While the two agencies, Child Protective Services and law enforcement, working to protect incest victims and punish their abusers have made strides since the 1990s by forming multidisciplinary teams, closing some legislative loopholes and working with children advocacy centers, a Crime Report investigation suggests that the system inadequately still remains woefully inadequate to protect their fragile charges. Scant information, a hodgepodge of laws and statutes, poor communication, and prosecutorial discretion, along with underfunded, poorly trained and overburdened CPS investigators, all continue to leave children at the greatest risk.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Two-Tier System</span><br />The problem starts with how such cases are handled when they come to the attention of authorities. Sexual abuse within a family comes under the jurisdiction of Children Protective Services (CPS) units, which were established inside state departments of social services in accordance with the 1974 federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.<br /><br />Under this law the federal government allocated resources to states to prevent child abuse and neglect, as well as programs related to the investigation and prosecution of child abuse.<br /><br />The motives for doing this seemed beyond reproach. The basic idea was to have specially trained investigators work on these sensitive familial issues. And while having units dedicated to investigating child abuse is a good idea in theory, Child Protective Services agencies have been targeted with allegations of botched investigations and corruption. Many are criticized as ineffective gatekeepers of children’s welfare.<br /><br />“If a kid is raped by a neighbor, people call police, but if the same person rapes their own child they call social services. What kind of justice is that?” said Grier Weeks, Executive Director of the National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT), a national organization based in Tennessee that works on lobbying for child abuse legislation.<br /><br />If a child accuses a caretaker of abuse, CPS has to be involved, but law enforcement does not. So, if a child is raped by his or her parent and goes to the police, CPS has to be notified in all states. But if CPS is notified, they are not required to tell law enforcement. And herein lies one of the largest conundrums of bringing these cases to justice: too often, experts say, social workers don’t have the training to investigate a sexual abuse allegation.<br /><br />Indeed, out of the three million referrals for child abuse received by CPS units around the country, according to the Administration for Children and Families annual Federal Child Maltreatment Report in 2008, which tracks all CPS statistics nationwide and were the last figures available, just 1.5 million were either investigated or received an assessment by CPS. Of these, only 24 percent of the investigations or assessments determined that at least one child was a victim of child abuse or neglect, among whom an estimated nine percent were sexually abused. This comparatively small percentage, leads advocates to believe that CPS has dismissed many cases without thorough investigation into the charges.<br /><br />“If there is no check by a prosecutor, Child Protection Services has no one on looking over its shoulder,” says Victor Vieth, director of the National Child Protection Training Center, a not-for-profit organization that works to better train CPS workers. “CPS might not realize what they may not know.”<br /><br />But when CPS does find a pattern of sexual abuse in a referred allegation it is almost impossible to track whether those cases made it to the criminal justice system.<br /><br />This does not surprise professionals in the field: the relationship between CPS and law enforcement is historically fraught with distrust. While in certain communities, in particular urban areas, multidisciplinary teams have formed to fully investigate sexual abuse cases, a majority of agencies operate in separate silos.<br /><br />“CPS is about protecting the kid, so you can protect a kid by taking them out of the house, but that doesn’t punish the adult at all,” says Ross Cheit, who studies child sexual abuse. “CPS isn’t about punishment or treatment of adult involved.”<br /><br />Cheit, who heads the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy & American Institutions in Providence, found in a 1997 study of 500 substantiated CPS sexual abuse cases in Rhode Island that just 12 were prosecuted in criminal court. It is almost impossible to track what happened to the 488 cases that did not make it through the court system, but most likely these cases were handled using an alternative response.<br /><br />CPS workers or multidisciplinary teams can decide whether it is in the best interest of the child to bring the case through the criminal justice system. They may try to remove the child from the home or try to terminate parental rights in civil court where the burden of proof is a lot lower.<br /><br />And while this may be the right path for some incest survivors, others feel stymied by this often-adopted solution.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Punishment for the Crime?</span><br />Many incest survivors don’t remember what happened until they are adults. By that time, much of the evidence has disappeared, restrictions imposed by the statute of limitations (which vary from state to state) also contribute to the reasons why many cases never make it to court.<br /><br />Moreover, child victims are often reluctant to press cases because they fear another family member might be hurt—or that their cases will be successful and their abuser will end up in jail. And ultimately, many worry simply that they won’t be believed.<br /><br />These fears kept Tesa Rigel, 31, silent for over 20 years, the eldest of four girls, she managed to repress memories that were “too ugly to think about”―until her 12-year-old younger sister confided the same thing was happening to her.<br /><br />When her father ignored Tesa’s pleas to stop the abuse, she decided the most effective way of putting him in jail, while protecting her sister’s privacy, was to reveal the story of her own rape. She filed a complaint with police in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and her father was duly charged with Tesa’s rape—more specifically with the rape of a child under 14. But she wasn’t prepared for what happened next.<br /><br />Two years later, her father was acquitted. The trial had turned on Tesa’s credibility—not her father’s actions. Neighbors had testified that she was a promiscuous teenager who “asked for it,” and a high school guidance counselor painted her as a troublemaker—apparently ignoring Tesa’s charge that the abuse had started when she was three.<br /><br />“I don’t know how a three year-old asked to be raped,” says Tesa, whose voice still shakes with anger and pain as recalls the “trauma” of the trial—a trauma, she notes, “that is almost as big as the first.”<br /><br />Theodore Cross, a Visiting Research Specialist in Quantitative Analysis at the University of Illinois Children and Family Research Center, found in a 2003 study that, while child abuse was less likely to lead to the filing of charges and incarceration, when prosecutors do choose to move forward, such cases usually ended up in court.<br /><br />Cross also found that prosecutions tended to be successful when victims were older, and thus more able to provide a coherent account of what happened, when caregivers were present to support the victim throughout the court process, when the alleged offender is not a biological parent or, finally, when serious threats or violence were involved.<br /><br />Yet experts in the field remain divided: some believe that prosecution is the most important means of dealing with child abuse and incest; others disagree.<br /><br />Victims deserve an “aggressive prosecution,” “It is important for victims, they deserve an aggressive prosecution,” insists said Scott Berkowitz, Executive Director of RAINN, a Washington DC based, national organization of Rape and Incest survivors. He’s backed up by Former Middlesex County, MA sex crimes prosecutor Wendy Murphy and author of the 2007 book “And Justice for Some” said that “Failure of prosecutors to treat these family rapes as a public crime just decriminalizes the act,” she says.<br /><br />But opponents feel just as strongly. “While it is important to hold offenders accountable I don’t see that as the primary yardstick of success with any sexual abused child,” says Teresa Huiszar, executive director of The National Children’s Alliance (NCA), which provides intervention and prevention on child abuse through multidisciplinary approaches. “The most important thing is that the child victim is able to function and is protected from harm.”<br /><br />Huizar says her teams have been extraordinarily successful. NCA has almost 700 centers nationwide and helped 259,000 child victims in 2009, NCA’s community-based centers provide children with one-stop access to everything from counseling to monitored interactions with CPS and law enforcement.<br /><br />An additional note of caution is sounded by David Finkelhor, Director of the Crime against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. “The perspective of the victim is very complicated in these cases,” he says. “Outside observers have to consider whether the prosecution agenda is their own agenda or in the best interest of child.”<br /><br />But there is a strong case to be made that successful prosecutions can empower victims.<br /><br />By the time Kayla Garriott’s mother found her diary, halfway through her senior year in high school, her father had been raping her for almost seven years. “It (began) right before I got my braces on at ten,” the Robbinston, Maine native recalls.<br /><br />The next day, her mother took her to the local headquarters of the Maine State Police, where she told detectives her story.<br /><br />“I thought I could stop it myself,” Garriott, now 21 and a college senior says in response to a question about why she didn’t say something sooner. Living in a town of 500 people, Garriott didn’t want everyone to look at her differently: “I didn’t want sympathy, I just wanted to be a senior in high school.”<br /><br />After a six-month investigation, detectives were able to record one of their conversations, in which her father confessed to having sex with his daughter. After a trial, in which Kayla testified, Kevin Cobb was sentenced to ten years in jail.<br /><br />Her dad’s imprisonment, says Garriott, was a “big relief.” But there was also little doubt in her mind that the process that got him there was also crucial to her recovery and self-confidence. “I am not a victim,” said Garriott, smiling like any 21-year-old co-ed without a care in the world. “I consider myself a survivor.”<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Cara Tabachnick is News Editor of The Crime Report</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-75659818180677979762010-08-07T06:00:00.007-04:002010-08-16T21:39:34.498-04:00Jessica Stern's DENIAL<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVKScCpl1Ctf6_BGtz6Sl2liu3Hs3xUPHLxQcx1W3s5MmPjTQ0p5ebfpBvHoekiGQdHfZfYesHvclM7EqMCVYHj7rQvqu5Ef3WFO_-W0QRxBMBRgRvd4B_qElib1-drUmmj_RKSeIteFU/s1600/Rhode_0808_Denial_08-08-10_12JF2KN.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 121px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVKScCpl1Ctf6_BGtz6Sl2liu3Hs3xUPHLxQcx1W3s5MmPjTQ0p5ebfpBvHoekiGQdHfZfYesHvclM7EqMCVYHj7rQvqu5Ef3WFO_-W0QRxBMBRgRvd4B_qElib1-drUmmj_RKSeIteFU/s400/Rhode_0808_Denial_08-08-10_12JF2KN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5502606763841541186" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">An abbreviated version of this book review appears at <br />http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-DENIAL_08-08-10_OVJ8VD2_v11.5771ca.html</span><br /><br />When I read Jessica Stern’s Terror in the Name of God in 2003, I wondered how she could walk fearlessly into terrorist strongholds to interview warlords, a practice that got her colleague Daniel Pearl beheaded. She answers that question in her latest book, Denial, as she explores fragments of her childhood that she had been hiding from herself and others. <br /><br />Stern and her younger sister were barely toddlers when their mother, fighting cancer, died from radiation experiments by their grandfather, a physician who had lost his hospital privileges. He had already begun sexually grooming Jessica, taking her into the shower, causing recurrent nightmares of a “sickeningly soft white slug” that spoke nauseating things to her. <br /><br />In 1973, the sisters were young teens, their father in Europe with his third wife, when a stranger with a gun broke into the home where they were staying, forced them to put on little girl’s clothes, and raped them. Police in the tranquil town of Concord, Massachusetts, refused to believe the girls did not know their assailant. The same pedophile had raped girls since 1971 with at least 44 victims around Concord, Cambridge, Natick, and Martha’s Vineyard. Police never warned those communities of the danger and closed the Sterns’ file when their father claimed his daughters had gotten over the ordeal. <br /><br />Thirty-three years later, with Jessica Stern’s renewed interest, a Concord police lieutenant doggedly searched files from several towns and identified the serial rapist, who already had gone to prison, come home, and hung himself. <br /><br />Stern interviews her rapist’s old friends and discovers a history of denial in his hometown, which had been afflicted by a succession of pedophile priests. Denial also dominated Stern’s father, whose Jewish family suffered appalling brutality in the Holocaust. <br /><br />This startlingly honest memoir reveals the ways that ordinary people go numb in the face of unbearable truth and shows the damage this denial does to children whose outcries are not believed. <br /><br />Readers who want linear narration may struggle with her extraordinary writing as Stern draws us into the foggy, repetitive texture of her own dissociating mind. She demonstrates the “irresistible” power of denial, not only for victims, but also “for bystanders who want to get on with their lives.”<br /><br />Dissociation still overwhelms this expert with intolerable sleepiness or sudden hypervigilance. Her research assistant gently points out similarities between her and his father, who brought his PTSD symptoms home from Vietnam.<br /><br />Stern describes the way Islamic terrorists rape little boys on Thursday nights to shame them into becoming fearless jihadists. Then, on Fridays, the rapists claim absolution. <br /><br />Both Stern and her aging father find redemption through sharing their most unspeakable memories, and she dedicates the book to him. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Anne Grant ( parentingproject@cox.net ) writes about children traumatized by domestic violence, sexual abuse and legal abuse in blogs like LittleHostages and http://trophychild.blogspot.com </span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-70452796559302327962010-07-13T10:31:00.002-04:002010-07-13T10:36:08.886-04:00Thank you, Johann Hari and Huffington Posthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/congratulations-polanski_b_643566.html<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/congratulations-polanski_b_643566.html"></a><br /><br />JULY 13, 2010<br /><br /><br />Johann Hari, Columnist, London Independent<br />Posted: July 12, 2010 05:20 PM<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Congratulations, Polanski-Defenders -- Now the Child-Rapist Walks Free!</span><br /><br />So now we know. If you are a 44-year-old man, you can drug and anally rape a terrified 13-year-old girl as she sobs, says "no, no, no," and pleads for her asthma medication, and face no punishment at all. You just have to meet two criteria: (a) You have to run away and stay away for a few decades, and (b) You need to direct some good films. If you manage this, not only will you walk free. There will be a huge campaign to protect you from the "witch-hunt" of the laws forbidding child-rape, and you will be lauded as a hero.<br /><br />Polanski admitted his crime before he ran away, and for years afterwards, he boasted from exile that every man wants to do what he did. He chuckled to one interviewer in 1979: "If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But... fucking, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls. Everyone wants to fuck young girls!"<br /><br />But this is not enough, it seems, for the Swiss government to return him to the United States to face trial. They have found a legalistic loophole that enables them to let him go - while admitting "national interests" may be a factor in the release. This may be a reference to pressure from neighboring France to free their citizen. As a Swiss citizen, I think I can say without being offensive - we all remember the bargains Swiss governments have made in the past to preserve their "national interests." This is in a long tradition of helping criminals and calling it Swiss hard-headedness.<br /><br />The campaign to release Polanski has leeched into the open a slew of attitudes that I thought were defeated a generation ago. Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn't "rape-rape." Others hinted darkly that she wasn't a virgin at the time of the rape. So if a 13 year old has been raped before, she's fair game for all future rapists?<br /><br />The French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who led the campaign, said a little bit of child molestation isn't his problem when Great Art is at stake. He wrote: "Am I repulsed by what he got up to? His behavior is not my business. I'm concerned about his movies. I like The Pianist and Rosemary's Baby." That's worth saying again: this campaign was led by a man who thinks the drugging and raping of a child is "not my business," when compared to a film about Satan inseminating Mia Farrow.<br /><br />The novelist Robert Harris, who is a friend of Polanski's, said: "It strikes me as disgusting treatment." He wasn't talking about the child-rape. He was talking about the attempt to punish the child-rape. He said Polanski was being subjected to a "lynch mob." Where is this lynch mob? All I can see are people patiently suggesting the law should be enforced, and he should be given a fair and open trial. This is the polar opposite of a lynching: it is sober justice.<br /><br />Do these defenders of Polanski understand what they are saying? Do they mean it? Harris has four children. If a great film director drugs and rapes them tomorrow, will he call the police, or will he say it would be "disgusting" to do so? Would he say the police and prosecutors trying to protect his children were a "lynch mob" and shoo them away? If the rapist ran off, would he say that after three decades on the run (boasting about his crime) he should walk free? I doubt it. So why do Harris' words suggest he thinks Polanski's victim is worth less than his own children?<br /><br />Now the campaign has succeeded. So congratulations to Whoopi and Bernard and Robert: an unrepentant, bragging child-rapist won't face his day in court, thanks in part to you. Have fun at the victory party. But -- just a word of advice -- you might want to leave your daughters at home.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. </span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-2086357871779912552010-03-23T21:02:00.012-04:002010-07-13T10:42:01.872-04:00Power & Control in the Courtroom<span style="font-style:italic;">(Click once on this image to enlarge.)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleRpGmWTxgpVLfggoA_tg64EWefxczHI1Na1a2U7Lt9pwKICZNInusLeZ6CvhO2TfxAx8eB3yeyGrjqREgZXrE22wPsf-eQcJAMzGcJ2PiZVAzz1Qo0s1sbSiI-nPMuGo2ieNnXlVDbc/s1600-h/0001kS.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleRpGmWTxgpVLfggoA_tg64EWefxczHI1Na1a2U7Lt9pwKICZNInusLeZ6CvhO2TfxAx8eB3yeyGrjqREgZXrE22wPsf-eQcJAMzGcJ2PiZVAzz1Qo0s1sbSiI-nPMuGo2ieNnXlVDbc/s400/0001kS.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452017905743324098" /></a><br />Men who had battered women helped to develop the Power and Control Wheel at the Domestic Violence Intervention Project of Duluth, Minnesota. Methods they acknowledged using to control their partners are very similar to official behavior in the courtroom that seems like an extension of the batterer. Victims of domestic violence who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often find the court triggers their symptoms. While the batterer can sit calmly in the courtroom, the victim of battering who suffers from PTSD may display reactions that lead the judge to incorrectly assume the batterer would be a better parent than the person who suffers PTSD. <br /><br />Here are those behaviors as identified on the Power & Control Wheel and <span style="font-weight:bold;">replicated in the courtroom: </span><br /> <br />INTIMIDATION: Making her afraid by using looks, actions, and gestures. Smashing things. Destroying her property. Abusing pets. Displaying weapons.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S INTIMIDATION: Making her afraid by looks, actions, gestures, loud voice, gavel, clinical reports, hostile behavior by court personnel. Threatening to remove and torment her children.</span><br /> <br />EMOTIONAL ABUSE: Putting her down. Making her feel bad about herself. Calling her names. Making her think she’s crazy. Playing mind games. Humiliating her. Making her feel guilty.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S EMOTIONAL ABUSE: Putting her down. Repeating lies about her without evidence. Playing mind games. Humiliating her. Making her feel guilty, accusing her of psychiatric disorders and “parental alienation.” </span><br /> <br />ISOLATION: Controlling what she does, who she sees and talks to, what she reads, and where she goes. Limiting her outside involvement. Using jealousy to justify actions.<br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S USE OF ISOLATION: Imposing gag orders that forbid her to discuss the case with anyone. Forbidding contact with domestic violence advocates, counselors, support groups, and friends for fear of losing her children, visitation rights, legal aid, etc. </span><br /><br />MINIMIZING, DENYING, AND BLAMING: Making light of the abuse and not taking her concerns about it seriously. Saying the abuse didn’t happen. Shifting responsibility for abusive behavior. Saying she caused it. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S WAY OF MINIMIZING, DENYING, AND BLAMING: Referring to the case as "high-conflict" rather than "assaultive." Making light of the abuse. Ignoring her concerns. Blaming her without evidence of addiction, alcoholism, promiscuity, Munchausen’s disorder by proxy, parental alienation. </span><br /><br />USING CHILDREN: Making her feel guilty about the children. Using the children to relay messages. Using visitation to harass her. Threatening to take the children away. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S WAY OF USING CHILDREN: Denying that she has protected the children. Refusing to hear or believe the children. Removing the children. Withholding visitation. Placing children with abusers.</span><br /><br />ECONOMIC ABUSE: Preventing her from getting or keeping a job. Making her ask for money. Giving her an allowance. Taking her money. Not letting her know about or have access to family income. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S USE OF ECONOMIC ABUSE: Letting lawyers/clinicians charge exorbitant fees and favor the parent who pays. Not assuring adequate child support. Allowing frivolous motions and court schedules that lose her pay and jobs. </span><br /><br />MALE PRIVILEGE: Treating her like a servant: making all the big decisions, acting like the “master of the castle,” being the one to define men’s and women’s roles. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">JUDICIAL AUTHORITY: Making her feel inferior, “under the thumb,” powerless and insignificant in the courtroom. Limiting her authority with her children. Not letting her hear or correct comments made about her in court or chambers. </span><br /> <br />COERCION AND THREATS: Making and/or carrying out threats to do something to hurt her. Threatening to leave her, commit suicide, or report her to welfare. Making her drop charges. Making her do illegal things. <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">COURT’S COERCION AND THREATS: Making, carrying out threats to penalize, fine, subpoena, arrest, impound property, imprison, remove and terrorize children, deny visitation. Imposing mediation despite a history of violence. </span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-86317644945669252102009-12-16T23:28:00.004-05:002009-12-16T23:55:23.587-05:00Coin a Phrase<span style="font-style:italic;">Writer Joan Dawson sent this article from the Santa Fe Reporter, noting it is the first article she's read that uses the term "domestic violence deniers." That term derives special force from the absurdity of Holocaust deniers. Coining phrases can provide adroit terminology and clinch a new insight. </span><br /><br />For the complete article, go to <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.sfreporter.com/stories/man_up/5234/all/</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">MAN UP: THERE IS ANOTHER SIDE TO THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STORY...</span><br /><br /><br />By: Corey Pein 12/16/2009<br /><br />On the face of it, Joshua Gonze is a successful man. <br /><br />A wealthy, fit and handsome 47-year-old executive at Thornburg Investment Management, Gonze has shared his financial expertise with CNBC, Bloomberg and USA Today. A vocal Libertarian, he campaigned for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and organized “tea party” protests. A prominent member of Temple Beth Shalom, Gonze has described himself as “a happily married father in Santa Fe.” <br /><br />Those words may have been true two years ago when they were published. But there is another side to this powerful man’s life, one that casts a troubling light on the views he has espoused.<br /><br />Publicly, Gonze supports a controversial cause known as “fathers’ rights.” Less known is that for years, Gonze has been able to suppress and counter domestic abuse claims made by two former spouses. His latest ex-wife claims that on Aug. 18, Gonze threatened her with a 10-inch kitchen knife and “waterboarded” their 2-year-old daughter during a dispute over custody. On Dec. 1, in an open courtroom in Santa Fe, Gonze withdrew his own petition, in which he claimed his wife had lied about the incident, and that she was the “abusive” one prone to “hysterical rage.”<br /><br />Gonze also has been the subject of numerous 911 calls. And a former court officer claims Gonze stalked her after a series of rulings didn’t go his way. <br /><br />Gonze appears to have avoided the usual consequences of such actions. Although his second wife worked in a local newsroom, the multiple allegations against Gonze never so much as made its police blotter. In fact, Gonze may have influenced the system in his favor by spearheading a law that limits wealthy men’s child support liability.<br /><br />Gonze was helped in that effort by Albuquerque lawyer David Standridge, who stood beside him in a court at the beginning of the month. Standridge is a theological men’s advocate: He has written in praise of the “warrior life,” defined as “violent men” who rule their households.<br /><br />Indeed, the men’s movement that Gonze and Standridge belong to is about much more than fathers’ rights. And like many of its members, the movement has a dark side.<br /> <br />The “fathers’ rights” narrative goes something like this: Family courts, cowed by decades of feminist activism, are biased against anyone with a Y chromosome. A few brave men, undaunted by the forces of feminist oppression, are fighting for their rights as fathers—and for the rights of all male-kind. <br /> <br />David River, a divorce mediator and co-facilitator of the Santa Fe Coordinated Community Response Council, an umbrella group for efforts against domestic violence, says the view has some merit. There are men with legitimate grievances, he says—particularly those who wind up in the system following a false accusation, or are punished inappropriately based on outdated laws that fail to consider the context of any given case. <br /> <br />“But then,” River says, the fathers’ rights groups “tend to minimize everything, and fail to see how many women get killed in domestic violence situations. They refuse to give [domestic violence] any legitimacy.” <br /> <br />Most child custody cases, like most lawsuits, settle out of court. Those that don’t can get nasty. Soon-to-be-published research shows that approximately 90 percent of contested cases involve domestic violence or abuse. In these cases, the child becomes a tool through which the abuser, usually the father, continues to exert control over his ex.<br /> <br />How many women get killed? According to the latest Department of Justice figures, 1,640 women were killed by “intimate partners” nationwide in 2007. That’s compared to 700 men. In Santa Fe, 2009 brought a terrible wave of violence against women, including the murder of a pregnant 17-year-old by her angry boyfriend, police say.<br /> <br />Within fathers’ rights circles, such stories are little more than spin by a “party line” feminist press. That charge was made against SFR by one local man, Kenneth Kast, who founded a shelter for men like himself, who were made temporarily homeless and jobless by restraining orders.<br /> <br />To date, Kast’s shelter has served no clients, he says. Starting it was “more of a political statement,” he tells SFR.<br /> <br />“The party line is the woman can say and do anything. If the man reacts physically, he needs to be punished. And she does not need to understand that she played a role in that,” Kast, a retired licensed social worker, says. <br /> <br />Like many in the movement, Kast has been the subject of a restraining order; Kast says his ex-wife’s attorney admitted on appeal that he had not been violent.<br /> <br />While it’s true that every story has at least two sides, for DV deniers, the woman’s side is always a lie. <br /><br />For the complete article, go to <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.sfreporter.com/stories/man_up/5234/all/</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-52098843826479544092009-11-15T08:53:00.006-05:002009-11-15T10:50:52.199-05:00Children who write about being sexually abused<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHSV_iS9VOGghIBn-tllcbB4gomJFQtv1qjFMNzqGvZQ6gFwAi30ng9JTYJqrkeseU2gpOam5faAPBx1UTLeltOidqbBstK3oP2WvPjVPfZDuxi6NNS02DQ61jlWrsQudbPV1e2ohDRM/s1600-h/story.mohler.mugs.courtesy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 169px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHSV_iS9VOGghIBn-tllcbB4gomJFQtv1qjFMNzqGvZQ6gFwAi30ng9JTYJqrkeseU2gpOam5faAPBx1UTLeltOidqbBstK3oP2WvPjVPfZDuxi6NNS02DQ61jlWrsQudbPV1e2ohDRM/s400/story.mohler.mugs.courtesy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404329516787661890" /></a><br />From left: David Mohler, Jared Mohler, Burrell Mohler Sr., Burrell Mohler Jr. and Roland Mohler face charges.<br /><br />Two current stories show child victims of sexual abuse writing about it. In Missouri, the Mohlers' alleged child victims reportedly wrote about their pain, placed those pages in jars and buried them in the ground. <br /><br />Follow this story and its updates at<br />http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/11/missouri.child.sexual.abuse/index.html<br /><br />In Louisiana, police have used technology to expose those who are downloading child pornography:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKc8fujhD6_8_6ZFkkbwJTKot00O3VR7QRo0HluxSJtxolMGwYlTvFXcJz1ZzvCJiavMiOqShc0bdmCgN2b6ZARdFQ8-Xz2MMRhwQJmHQI9Pk-aAE_Y6SEo6ktqSONgLUMOPoLoUC4cSM/s1600-h/childporn-googlemapjpg-3ae026691109d1a1_large.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 303px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKc8fujhD6_8_6ZFkkbwJTKot00O3VR7QRo0HluxSJtxolMGwYlTvFXcJz1ZzvCJiavMiOqShc0bdmCgN2b6ZARdFQ8-Xz2MMRhwQJmHQI9Pk-aAE_Y6SEo6ktqSONgLUMOPoLoUC4cSM/s400/childporn-googlemapjpg-3ae026691109d1a1_large.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404330960141588818" /></a><br />G. Andrew Boyd / The Times-Picayune<br />A real-time Google map showing where computers are located that are uploading and downloading sexually explicit images of children. State Police and the attorney general's office now have sophisticated software that can detect child pornography sharing and downloading.<br /><br />Here is the opening to that story by Robert Travis Scott at the Times-Picayune:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Trapped in a nightmare of unrelenting sexual molestation and torment by her stepfather, a 12-year old central Louisiana girl tried to console herself by writing about her distress in a spiral-notebook diary. <br /><br />"If you are reading this help me I really need your help," she wrote last year in a desperate three-page entry. "I am really scared with fear in my body. ... I try to pray about it but it never goes away." <br /><br />The girl's ordeal finally ended when State Police, using new computer software, discovered the stepfather's criminal practice of trading sexually explicit images of children through the Internet. After officers arrested the stepfather in connection with the material found on his computer, they found the girl and her notebook, leading to additional charges and a conviction for child molestation. <br /><br />The case is one of an increasing number of arrests in Louisiana and nationwide resulting from breakthroughs in software that can monitor the digital-age trafficking of images depicting child sexual exploitation and rape. <br /><br />Although the story demonstrates the software's great potential and the very real possibility of rescuing abuse victims, the frustrating truth is that the technology finds many more criminal targets than law enforcement officials can afford to arrest and prosecute. <br /><br />"We have the key, but we are barely using it," said Heather Steele, president of the Innocent Justice Foundation, a nonprofit group fighting child pornography. </span><br /><br />Read the whole story at<br />http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2009/11/post_72.htmlAnne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-7222510645836965202009-10-25T10:12:00.010-04:002009-12-14T11:26:42.941-05:00Writing Books and Book ReviewsYou can write truth to power by writing books (and book reviews): <br /><br /><a href="http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-SCARED-SILENT_10-25-09_C3FTVKM_v9.1059466.html"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN77NAYR5Pzawzu0msu8p5j0qrXV9dyhVsuZpcOWx6XjsFYA73qedBZYYqmNMRf5W0c_rQikHz_zu4uUYlmwOfwIXRGA6ABwvYbifEhY4SL-V4biIiPLQt_D6ZNdX4vnXEIhTo1YTkYrk/s1600-h/ar1025_scared_10-25-09_50G5VV7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 170px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN77NAYR5Pzawzu0msu8p5j0qrXV9dyhVsuZpcOWx6XjsFYA73qedBZYYqmNMRf5W0c_rQikHz_zu4uUYlmwOfwIXRGA6ABwvYbifEhY4SL-V4biIiPLQt_D6ZNdX4vnXEIhTo1YTkYrk/s400/ar1025_scared_10-25-09_50G5VV7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396540517129138082" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Book review published in the Providence Journal, Sunday, October 25, 2009</span><br />http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-SCARED-SILENT_10-25-09_C3FTVKM_v9.1059466.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Beltway Sniper's violent past</span><br /><br />by Anne Grant<br />Special to The Journal<br /><br />In 2002 the nation watched in horror as the D.C. Beltway Sniper murdered random victims. He turned out to be a veteran of the Gulf War engaged in a custody battle. Encouraged by a Tacoma group called Devoted Dads, who reunited fathers and children with federal funds, John Muhammad pursued his ex-wife across the country. He had already promised to kill her: Like a tightening noose, his rampage led to her doorstep.<br /><br />A modest, thoughtful woman, Mildred Muhammad decided to tell her story to help those trapped by terrorists in their own homes. The back-story reads like many intractable custody cases that are wrongly portrayed in the courts as “high-conflict,” as if both parents are selfishly squabbling and equally guilty. But one practices terror while the other tries desperately to protect their children.<br /><br />From the start of their romance, John lied. Married to another, the father of two by different women, he was charming, like many narcissistic abusers. Raised in a violent household, he resisted talking about the torment he had suffered as a child. He emerged from that trauma as a man determined to control others by seduction or force.<br /><br />When life-changing videos on racism led the couple into the Nation of Islam, they assumed the name Muhammad. Mildred hoped this would transform John, especially after he went to the Million Man March in 1995 and took Minister Louis Farrakhan’s pledge to practice non-violence and not abuse his wife or children.<br /><br />His conversion did not last. John told Mildred she was “mind over matter” to him, explaining: “I don’t mind, because you don’t matter.”<br /><br />Two years before he terrorized the Beltway, John abducted their three children. Mildred tried to warn Tacoma police that he was dangerous, but police minimized the kidnapping, arguing that he was the children’s father. They never submitted his name to the National Crime Information Center or listed the children’s names as missing. If officers had done those things as they promised, they might have averted the children’s 18-month ordeal and the D.C. killings.<br /><br />Mildred Muhammad tells how John waged psychological warfare without leaving visible wounds: “To keep the peace, I began doing what he wanted the way he wanted. I found myself changing to accommodate him.”<br /><br />More than a memoir, this revealing book shows Muhammad’s wisdom in helping her children cope. She includes a safety plan and resources for victims of domestic violence.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Anne Grant has written about domestic violence and custody cases in The Providence Journal and elsewhere, including littlehostages.blogspot.com and a forthcoming text from Civics Research Institute (parentingproject@cox.net).</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-81226222865733717682009-10-05T03:49:00.005-04:002009-10-05T04:02:41.892-04:00Petition to Put Polanski in Prison<a href="http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/action/act-now/petition-send-polanski-to-prison"><br /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8jYQ4ablnbC6TWJeDJeKZlmfI48AawejmH9chYRiu3GwGaJ_Bf9hwQ4zh9aImVMmsv0W-0ryfeAoJGnMJ4QbM2zWdvYL7OVJ80sgMcGgOnh8nMdukF_K4MyNLrWnZ88iBxPE00zTK38/s1600-h/behind_bars_2_feature.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8jYQ4ablnbC6TWJeDJeKZlmfI48AawejmH9chYRiu3GwGaJ_Bf9hwQ4zh9aImVMmsv0W-0ryfeAoJGnMJ4QbM2zWdvYL7OVJ80sgMcGgOnh8nMdukF_K4MyNLrWnZ88iBxPE00zTK38/s400/behind_bars_2_feature.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389022154767964562" /></a><br />Stop Family Violence has published a petition and a list of blogs on Roman Polanski's crime and the celebrity rush to his defense. You can sign the petition here:<br /><br />http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/action/act-now/petition-send-polanski-to-prisonAnne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-28607173524616634942009-09-21T21:02:00.004-04:002010-04-13T12:52:15.154-04:002009 books on sex crimes against children<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT94LllY1hyphenhyphenK8YRCJjq_Jls3rPKl9K0VVeESTbvcyUBaqy2QwvNkeEVycmwqYsOn7oJ1OP_Yv4YVpwZ4oHn2aotx7RE6l3vxyCeDi7x6iopvgUYqq1VJAKvKWSfHHz2RV5mdqpWPtH-Fcw/s1600-h/41cCDyI5NvL-1._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT94LllY1hyphenhyphenK8YRCJjq_Jls3rPKl9K0VVeESTbvcyUBaqy2QwvNkeEVycmwqYsOn7oJ1OP_Yv4YVpwZ4oHn2aotx7RE6l3vxyCeDi7x6iopvgUYqq1VJAKvKWSfHHz2RV5mdqpWPtH-Fcw/s400/41cCDyI5NvL-1._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382184909103751714" /></a><br /><br />Our extended family includes a convicted pedophile. This year, under an assumed name, he published his memoir, in which he describes his obsessive search for friends, jobs, and travel destinations that gave him sexual access to young boys, much like “Molly” and “Sara’s” paternal grandfather in the custody case reported at http://littlehostages.blogspot.com<br /><br />Both men went to prison for these crimes--but not for their crimes against children in their own families. (An editor removed accounts of incest from our relative’s book, apparently because these “complicated” his story.) <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.amazon.com/Made-USA-Memoir-Sex-Offender/dp/1887650504<br /></span><br />The late Richard Gardner, psychiatrist, author, and self-publisher, created “Parental Alienation Syndrome” in 1985 and built it into a cottage industry. He lobbied against mandatory reporting of sex crimes against children. He argued that society was too restrictive when it prohibits sex between adults and children. <br /><br />His theory held that children who complain of abuse by their fathers should not be believed, since their mothers had probably alienated, brainwashed, and coached them. These children, Gardner advised, should be taken from their mothers and awarded to their fathers. <br /><br />The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has emphatically rejected “Parental Alienation” for failure to meet evidentiary standards. But Rhode Island’s Family Court has groomed psychologists who actively promote it. <br /><br />This year, some superbly written books have been published that challenge pedophile assumptions: <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRWD1UoEyYonPJgcQ2P7JZcwwg9hvS8y0n-bF_kUtqNXCcE55s_BHLjhB3w8tIRaUAa2hbYeT8RG-x9vujsZowMKjkBA_sG4XuFxx-OrsTdJF7weqE2qmZcQUL-DdthxzW6l2V28LaQ3mD/s1600-h/51TIwQN8FUL.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 275px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRWD1UoEyYonPJgcQ2P7JZcwwg9hvS8y0n-bF_kUtqNXCcE55s_BHLjhB3w8tIRaUAa2hbYeT8RG-x9vujsZowMKjkBA_sG4XuFxx-OrsTdJF7weqE2qmZcQUL-DdthxzW6l2V28LaQ3mD/s400/51TIwQN8FUL.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382185656362572306" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed </span></span><br /><br />Journalist <span style="font-weight:bold;">Kathy Marks</span> tells of a historically Christian society where men routinely raped and assaulted children while women acquiesced on the Island of Pitcairn that was settled more than 200 years ago by mutineers. Marks went to the remote island in 2004 to report on the trials of village leaders and others for raping children. She provides an astonishing account of this sexually permissive criminal culture and some of its profoundly disturbing consequences.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Paradise-Modern-Day-Pitcairn-Revealed/dp/1416597441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253114284&sr=1-1</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hZfJTWXhAEkYioQNWtZ8tDpOKPTR8AeZSYcs8MKoLYI0ldgZRG3R3YdFTaQ3FRqZC5-gCWWpiVnTl32S-fXNijZ7LORJfvfhVA62pDICGl_Fa66l1O4QCBq2S4rplzKhJr7Tf1Frk-Oe/s1600-h/9780801893001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hZfJTWXhAEkYioQNWtZ8tDpOKPTR8AeZSYcs8MKoLYI0ldgZRG3R3YdFTaQ3FRqZC5-gCWWpiVnTl32S-fXNijZ7LORJfvfhVA62pDICGl_Fa66l1O4QCBq2S4rplzKhJr7Tf1Frk-Oe/s400/9780801893001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382185404119997378" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unspeakable: Father-Daughter Incest in American History </span></span><br /><br />History Professor <span style="font-weight:bold;">Lynn Sacco</span> meticulously documents centuries of denial, steeped in class, race, and gender, that refused to prosecute white fathers for incest. She describes the manipulation of medical evidence to shore up patriarchal power at the expense of girls’ physical and emotional integrity. With concern for their own careers, otherwise progressive professionals have preferred to help defense attorneys "detect ‘malicious prosecutions’ and false allegations" rather than reporting actual medical evidence of abuse. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu:80/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801893001&qty=1&source=2&viewMode=3&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMqOMZ-sooCXtnOv2JkvUsHv5V_79rg5zCRTekL6jp9byCy355HGxh1xCIp-RJc22j2NGhzqDGFZgCBA-py5wpqlZ6NEoZDcjkX_Q8TATGQjxMQnlkepl-VZX9MUuKL-vBS7mZcxeRsYv/s1600-h/9781584656715.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMqOMZ-sooCXtnOv2JkvUsHv5V_79rg5zCRTekL6jp9byCy355HGxh1xCIp-RJc22j2NGhzqDGFZgCBA-py5wpqlZ6NEoZDcjkX_Q8TATGQjxMQnlkepl-VZX9MUuKL-vBS7mZcxeRsYv/s400/9781584656715.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382185939794794162" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals</span><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />Sociologist <span style="font-weight:bold;">Amy Neustein </span>exposes collusion between a district attorney and council of rabbis intent on suppressing sex abuse allegations against yeshiva administrators, therapists, and rabbis. In 2000, a Yiddish-language newspaper in Brooklyn, NY, published a full-page notice signed by fifty prominent rabbis reminding readers of the “severe prohibition” against informing non-Jewish authorities against another Jew. This included reporting child abuse to police. The record shows similarities to the Catholic Church's history of covering up sexual abuse of children by priests.<br /> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.upne.com/1-58465-671-9.html<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7aWJb-C3waJjasdHRy5UWlqlY80BzD8cylrK7vIZ5jF7bkbMSOMQPT31chI2i0FEFian0dbozheoPsGe5JrCwc5oEwigHpJYSHp85Qa9iZkgQE2-2WNIx5EvmjEeTdhWojuo6LHXQdv3j/s1600-h/51qJB6mYNRL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7aWJb-C3waJjasdHRy5UWlqlY80BzD8cylrK7vIZ5jF7bkbMSOMQPT31chI2i0FEFian0dbozheoPsGe5JrCwc5oEwigHpJYSHp85Qa9iZkgQE2-2WNIx5EvmjEeTdhWojuo6LHXQdv3j/s400/51qJB6mYNRL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382186279792661298" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">My Body Belongs To Me</span><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />Assistant District Attorney <span style="font-weight:bold;">Jill Starishevsky </span>prosecutes sex crimes against children in New York City. Her book uses simple words in readable rhymed verse to give young children a sense of ownership over their bodies. If an adult touches them in ways that scare them, they can tell parents or teachers. “He said it’s our secret/ and told me not to tell./ But I ran away real fast/ and then began to yell.” <span style="font-weight:bold;">Sara Muller </span>has illustrated the book with expressively whimsical drawings to help children understand their personal right to feel safe and respected.<br /> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://www.mybodybelongstome.com/</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkyyTF4SV3sGrR6gMpgRQOuqqpIFC-Ic5wBVpfu6IdK_hpPRJS4bj5Wx4dKwSidYnxb0gR7XMFQeEV6cuEs2xXQ-RcQ6DmL-PytTzKdzLkpwuOJyxIlkzbpllPEwi2Nqhzfyw7HYSvLBB/s1600-h/38301909-the-warrior.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 321px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkyyTF4SV3sGrR6gMpgRQOuqqpIFC-Ic5wBVpfu6IdK_hpPRJS4bj5Wx4dKwSidYnxb0gR7XMFQeEV6cuEs2xXQ-RcQ6DmL-PytTzKdzLkpwuOJyxIlkzbpllPEwi2Nqhzfyw7HYSvLBB/s400/38301909-the-warrior.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382240535716659698" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Angela Shelton’s Warrior Workbook</span><span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />Filmmaker <span style="font-weight:bold;">Angela Shelton</span>, who escaped childhood incest along with her siblings, has designed a therapeutic step-by-step journal that she subtitles “Be your own hero" with the reminder: "It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” Her outspoken humor is healing and smartly illustrated by <span style="font-weight:bold;">James Murray. </span>Disarmingly clown-like and powerful, Angela’s infectious, can-do spirit and spontaneity help the wounded to take heart and find their unique voices. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">http://store.searchingforangelasheltonstore.com/swordwb.html</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-84472277221882386082009-07-05T09:15:00.018-04:002013-12-07T21:15:46.380-05:00Digitizing Your Documents<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6iSN0_JF5mz2PLnognjdwzq1SzgPQrEio6U02lQQRbzk0tSHJJCWto-RjAPJ9reLoyL_ZKqTIq-MszEldr7q6C7TNZLlxgTNkI1ZqklpljU6_CXXBm2lz8fkiGJHSIKPes626BrPlaa8/s1600-h/_MG_0938.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354976985836424978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6iSN0_JF5mz2PLnognjdwzq1SzgPQrEio6U02lQQRbzk0tSHJJCWto-RjAPJ9reLoyL_ZKqTIq-MszEldr7q6C7TNZLlxgTNkI1ZqklpljU6_CXXBm2lz8fkiGJHSIKPes626BrPlaa8/s400/_MG_0938.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Custody cases bring a blizzard of paper. Those of us who live these cases or write about them wade through boxes and bags of paper--police, court, medical records, psych evaluations, children's drawings, photographs, school records, handwritten notes, journals. Some of the pages have been crumbled in rage, torn, tattered, stained with coffee and tears. <br />
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In courthouses I wrestle with pronged folders and pour a small fortune into copy machines. I research cases at state archives, law offices, private homes. Some people deliver boxes to me or beg me to take them away, because these reminders give them nausea, anxiety, depression. <br />
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When parents ask me to investigate their cases, I tell them I need access to all the documents. This is true and also a test. Will they show me only those documents favorable to them? Sometimes naive reporters get conned into telling a simplistic, one-sided story, often without realizing they have become part of the scam. <br />
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Most protective parents give me access to everything, including documents of the back-story that show what was happening in their family long before they went to court. Often there was a long history of domestic violence, sexual abuse, or coercive control, sometimes reaching back into prior generations. <br />
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Most protective parents are deep in debt to lawyers and court contractors. None of them has ever paid me. This is important: I am obligated to no one, except the best interests of the children. <br />
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To figure out what is going wrong in these cases, I sort papers into chronological order and document the history through textual analysis. Will I find similar patterns from case to case? In past years I produced articles for my Overcoming Abuse column in the Providence Journal (1990-1996), for op-eds, and other publications. <br />
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One woman scanned and emailed scores of documents to me. How could she do it so fast? She recommended the Fujitsu ScanSnap. Their portable model proved to be just what I needed to carry into homes and courthouses to quickly turn documents into fine quality PDFs. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-K7G0YRLGLZWBqI2kXOONOuH8YYzk2fUmj9WS-7GvRjBe-O2YVOLj_XxTx7YU0Cuienc9oCspngYTPy6YZKB10R3JKsJkSbre0I3amhf1TRY9BPww02wNcItt7I3w2ZBclovvQ4SYzQ/s1600-h/_MG_0939.JPG.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377711195972081138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-K7G0YRLGLZWBqI2kXOONOuH8YYzk2fUmj9WS-7GvRjBe-O2YVOLj_XxTx7YU0Cuienc9oCspngYTPy6YZKB10R3JKsJkSbre0I3amhf1TRY9BPww02wNcItt7I3w2ZBclovvQ4SYzQ/s400/_MG_0939.JPG.jpeg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 215px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 264px;" /></a><br />
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Here's how I used it:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDru4iCrjbAkIUXQ-ibGRG4bFMkA-6O7mRunIZKhKZR7Y32iPvAQudvQR5qmILHcl5nDMAqlQ9CM4X6jI_GV0l-QCzyyzbVnukXLTWUXwGatLILTJLoDlh85g8qZLdbFfIiytXCYIH_28/s1600-h/_MG_0933.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354977660898564690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDru4iCrjbAkIUXQ-ibGRG4bFMkA-6O7mRunIZKhKZR7Y32iPvAQudvQR5qmILHcl5nDMAqlQ9CM4X6jI_GV0l-QCzyyzbVnukXLTWUXwGatLILTJLoDlh85g8qZLdbFfIiytXCYIH_28/s400/_MG_0933.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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I entitled each scan with the family name and date that would electronically organize documents in chronological order. <br />
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I set up a file called Parenting Project Cases. Within that, each family has their own file. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkuoXuF7JZ7yo2RHmAdNdir7lCncItjhyphenhyphenEUuyEeFCqT1PZPCabyV1JsFYaDMJ5K8M_ShOt7SgMJisFfZHAG-DWxWcHb7oas05CGyqllsFrOn5gOYEcyNfx-yShTnVnR_3HE9xyRX-wQ8o/s1600-h/_MG_0941.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354977236686304562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkuoXuF7JZ7yo2RHmAdNdir7lCncItjhyphenhyphenEUuyEeFCqT1PZPCabyV1JsFYaDMJ5K8M_ShOt7SgMJisFfZHAG-DWxWcHb7oas05CGyqllsFrOn5gOYEcyNfx-yShTnVnR_3HE9xyRX-wQ8o/s400/_MG_0941.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Usually I type the family's name first, then the date, starting with the year (4 digits), then month (2 digits), then day (2 digits). <br />
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In this case, I needed to merge documents from two families, showing the relationship between them in two different states. So I wrote the date first.<br />
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[<b>UPDATE:</b> I am now preferring to write the date first (using the court stamp date if available), followed by the family name. Each family has its own file. This will allow me to merge several families chronologically later in a separate merger file if I want to look at the performance of a particular judge, guardian ad litem, or expert. I can color each family's chronology differently and paste several lists in a new merged file, where they will line up chronologically with the different colors making it easier to distinguish the families.] <br />
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In another case, I put the family's name first. I clicked a few times on the name/date column to be sure the list of PDFs had all lined up chronologically. Once they were in order, I could copy and paste the list into a long Word document, making an index. Here are a few of the entries (with names, initials changed):<br />
<br />
Jones 1995ff AB Summary of Events.pdf<br />
Jones 19990827 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 19991006 CDE Arrest.pdf<br />
Jones 19991019 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 19991024 FG Fee Agreement 1.pdf<br />
Jones 19991106 FG Notice of appeal.pdf<br />
Jones 20010301 HJ arrests KLM.pdf<br />
Jones 20010301 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010301ff Incident Diary.pdf<br />
Jones 20010302 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010307 FG bill A.pdf<br />
Jones 20010307 FG bill B.pdf<br />
Jones 20010307 FG bill C.pdf<br />
Jones 20010315 FG Fee Agreement 2.pdf<br />
Jones 20010320 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010321 A Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010321 B Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010321 C Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010326 FG bill Misc.pdf<br />
Jones 20010328 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010330 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010330 Police Report.pdf<br />
Jones 20010330 CDE Arrest.pdf<br />
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[<b>UPDATE</b> Since posting this, I have improved my process by standardizing several abbreviations, such as using <b>PL, DF, STIP</b> after the date to indicate whether court documents were introduced by <b>plaintiff </b>or <b>defendant </b>or by <b>stipulation </b>that both agreed to. I indicate <b>ORDER</b> followed by judge's name. I have learned what terms I may want to search for, such as the names of certain "experts".]<br />
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An entire family file of scanned documents in chronological order, with the additional Word document as an index (plus any emails relating to the case) can be saved on a CD, making it relatively easy to share with others, including reporters, and to flip through the history of the case on a monitor. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDSBGz7hvyGokyiEROqKW0UQ3MDti6tmcKqbgRgOsKdwT-yorCLULKtamaNLpDt9sXIrF7JnHBkIU1aoqkXgJhkPmO5PsxvJV9MITq-empGoCmH7ho7Sh8JKn0ud8r-xKCJvvhSRidyU/s1600-h/_MG_0932.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354976760875065858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDSBGz7hvyGokyiEROqKW0UQ3MDti6tmcKqbgRgOsKdwT-yorCLULKtamaNLpDt9sXIrF7JnHBkIU1aoqkXgJhkPmO5PsxvJV9MITq-empGoCmH7ho7Sh8JKn0ud8r-xKCJvvhSRidyU/s400/_MG_0932.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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The ScanSnap, laptop computer (plus cords, adapters, power strip, staple remover, stapler, notebooks, snacks) fit easily into a small wheeling suitcase: An office on wheels!Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-64492501518006416402009-01-01T15:35:00.034-05:002009-08-26T11:13:51.727-04:00Custody Cases in Women's HistoryA woman's ability to produce a new human directly from her body is an extraordinary power. Until recently in human history, a man had no way to prove any child was actually his. <br /><br />Men asserted their power through laws that made women and children their property, giving men rights of ownership over all human production. As in many other cultures, Old English Common Law crafted marriage from the same fabric as slavery. Custom required a woman to take her husband's name at marriage: she had become his property. <br /><br />Struggles over custody are nothing new. In her book <span style="font-style:italic;">Revolutionary Heart,</span> (QuindaroPress.com), Diane Eickhoff presents Clarina Nichols' account of her 1860 arrest and trial with other citizens intent on rescuing children from their violent father:<br /><br />http://www.clarinanichols.com/Clarina_Nichols_-_Revolutionary_Heart_-_First_Chapter.html<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRHA0MFxmYu3zqNLiq__v7iWZX_tpsJ086ie0jaaEGzwgjLc5BxcluED2BOLrr4LqOMOU493X0ekdkgB676k1CDNPyZmlpdVcS_SIjpddMfoM-9_Dl0nrzMNed_QS75xIIHfEwfwnq1vA/s1600-h/RH_coveronly.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 244px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRHA0MFxmYu3zqNLiq__v7iWZX_tpsJ086ie0jaaEGzwgjLc5BxcluED2BOLrr4LqOMOU493X0ekdkgB676k1CDNPyZmlpdVcS_SIjpddMfoM-9_Dl0nrzMNed_QS75xIIHfEwfwnq1vA/s400/RH_coveronly.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288419767133445378" /></a><br /><br />Clarina Nichols' writing and speaking helped spread awareness of custody as a women's issue. The power of abusive men to seize custody of their children would expand as they paid psychologists to allege that mothers were mentally ill or had "alienated," "brainwashed," or "coached" children against their fathers. Soon custody courts produced a river of revenue for lawyers and clinicians until children reached emancipation at age 18. These cases multiplied throughout the next century. The first Battered Mothers Custody Conference met at Siena College in Albany, New York, in 2004. <br /><br />Nichols still inspires us as we write about children held hostage by 21st Century custody courts and the lawyers and clinicians who have built and exploited this market.Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-82034652112917609582009-01-01T15:34:00.071-05:002009-11-05T06:23:23.338-05:00VerbatimsIf you cannot record conversations on a camera, cellphone, ipod, or other recorder, then use “verbatims” to document appointments, hearings, children’s disclosures. Write as much as you can remember as soon as possible after it happens. <br /><br />Verbatims look like a script and use people’s names or initials followed by precise words using this simple format: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">DATE:<br />TIME:<br />PLACE:<br />OCCASION:</span><br /><br />This is an actual verbatim that I inserted into this post at a later date: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">JH </span>= Judge Higgins, District Courtroom 4C <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">PR</span>=Special Assistant Attorney General Peter Roklan, State Prosecutor<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">JP</span>=Jeffrey Pine, lawyer for MD; Pine is a former Attorney General <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">MD</span>=mother of 3-year-old<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">HF</span>=sister of MD’s ex-husband<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">AF</span>=husband of HF<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Situation:</span> MD's ex-husband and his family have subjected her to repeated frivolous arrests and imprisonments, a well-known pattern of abuse called <span style="font-weight:bold;">domestic violence by proxy</span>. She is now being accused of taking photographs outside the home of HF, her ex-husband's sister, who claims to have a restraining order against MD. The Attorney General's office is aggressively prosecuting her. </span><br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">DATE:</span> September 2, 2009 <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">TIME:</span> 2 pm <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">PLACE:</span> Garrahy Courthouse, Providence, RI District Court 4C and Superior Court 5G <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">OCCASION:</span> Arraignment for MD (mother of 3-year-old AD). <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">District Court Judge Higgins sends MD to Superior Court Magistrate Gallo; Special Assistant Attorney General Peter Roklan is upset that Cumberland prosecutor did not cite MD as a probation violator. </span><br /> <br />JP: For God's sake, how many times are you going to prosecute this woman for the same crime? (JP leaves courtroom and returns to District Courtroom 4C.) <br /> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(In District Courtroom 4C:) </span><br /><br />JH: I will not hear it. If your client is going to prison, it is just too bad, and you'll have to take it up with the AG. <br /><br />JP: We just had a hearing in Superior Court and had a date set for a violation and/or bail hearing. <br /><br />JH: My decision is final. <br /> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(Later state prosecutor PR returns to 4C.) </span><br /><br />PR: She can't be released. <br /><br />JP: There is not even a scintilla of probable cause on which to hold her. The restraining order was in the name of HF and the complaint was brought by AF and furthermore the restraining order was never served on MD and therefore was invalid. … Where are your balls? Be a man! Make a decision! You have the authority to make this decision!<br /><br />PR: I am not in a position to make that decision. <br /><br />Clerk: What is the final decision?<br /><br />JP: I don’t know. It’s up to the AG, and he is not budging.<br /><br />Clerk: The judge will not hear you. He’s left me in charge to note the final decision in the record.<br /><br />JP <span style="font-style:italic;">(slamming his papers and file on the desk and pounding his index finger on the desk in front of the clerk): </span>I want to be heard! You get that judge out here! I demand to be heard!<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(Clerk leaves. A few moments later, Judge Higgins returns to the bench.)<br /></span><br />JH: She’s going to the ACI, and that’s that!<br /><br />JP: You will hear me, because if you do not, you are abusing your power and allowing the AG to perpetuate a malicious prosecution case. … HF has a restraining order against MD. However, HF did not file the complaint.<br /><br />JH: That doesn’t matter. If MD was out on the street taking pictures, then she is in violation of the restraining order. <br /><br />JP: No restraining order is presently in existence, because it was never served on MD, and if there is no knowledge, then there is no order. <br /><br />JH: I’ll incarcerate MD until tomorrow and that will give them time to check the court records to see if the order had been served or not. <br /><br />JP: That won’t be necessary. MD’s mother went to the clerk’s office and picked up the original that was never served from Magistrate Shepard’s clerk, and she has it with her.<br /> <br />JH: Do you in fact have it?<br /><br />MD’s mother: I certainly do. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Searches in bag and gives it to sheriff who gives it to judge.)</span><br /><br />JH: It is not possible that this was not served on MD. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(Judge reads, then speaks to PR)</span><br /><br />JH: You’ve got to dismiss this case. If you don’t, I’ll 48A it. <br /><br />JH<span style="font-style:italic;"> (to JP):</span> There is no valid restraining order in existence. AF does not have a restraining order against MD.<br /> <br />JH <span style="font-style:italic;">(to MD’s mother): </span>I know you paid bail money, and I want you to go right down there and get your money back. <br /><br />JP: Judge, her husband and his family have her arrested every time there is an issue of custody in family court. <br /><br />JH <span style="font-style:italic;">(to JP):</span> This is what to put in the dismissal stipulation. Do it now. <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Verbatims </span><br />• report words as precisely as possible <br />• include actions in parentheses<br />• make it easier to recall and document conversations <br />• keep a more accurate record than a narrative description<br />• help you keep calm when your child's disclosures upset you<br />• help you avoid asking your child about disclosures (which might contaminate the disclosure)<br />• make the event more accessible for a reader to envision it happening <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">WARNING: When you document troubling comments that your children say to you, do not show these records to court officers or clinicians who may use them against you, as if you were “alienating," "brainwashing," or "coaching" your child to say these things against an abuser. However, the verbatims you keep of your child's disclosures may some day help your child to comprehend early traumatic experiences. For more about the search to find traumatic causes of DID, see The United States of Tara explanation: </span>http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1847322218/bclid5253538001/bctid6803420001Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-75041138502588166482009-01-01T15:34:00.065-05:002009-04-08T12:41:41.926-04:00Evaluate Clinicians and LawyersIt is generally not a good idea to file professional complaints in the midst of litigation, though it could force an abusive contractor or judge to leave a case. (One Family Court judge left the system because lawyers practicing before him also loaned him money for his gambling habit. This did not prevent one of those lawyers from becoming a Family Court judge. The court system ignores ethical failures when no one bothers to complain.)<br /><br />In Rhode Island, you can file well-documented complaints against clinicians with the Department of Health:<br />http://www.health.ri.gov/hsr/bmld/complaints.php<br /><br />You can file well-documented complaints against lawyers with the Disciplinary Counsel:<br />http://www.courts.ri.gov/supreme/disciplinary/defaultdisciplinary.htm<br /><br />You can file well-documented complaints against judges with the Commission on Judicial Tenure and Discipline:<br />http://www.courts.ri.gov/supreme/jtd/defaultjtd.htm<br /><br />In addition to filing complaints against contractors (clinicians, lawyers, etc.), you can register your concerns in numerous online websites when you google a contractor's name and state. Your comments will appear in a single paragraph. Be sure that what you write is accurate, provable, and not intended to harass. Here is an example that is posted at:<br /><br />Http://providence.citysearch.com/search?context=directory&query=lori+meyerson&cslink=cs_topbar_search&searchOpt=cs <http://providence.citysearch.com/search?context=directory&query=lori+meyerson&cslink=cs_topbar_search&searchOpt=cs> <br /><br />(<span style="font-style:italic;">This appears to have been removed, but you get the idea. Here is what it said:) <br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lori Meyerson’s work fails national standards<br /></span><br />RI Family Court recruited psychologist Lori Meyerson in 2004 for a case involving a former court employee who sought custody of his 10-year-old daughter despite a long history of police involvement relating to domestic violence and weapons charges. Chief Judge Jeremiah’s aide David Tassoni stated that he had been searching for a guardian ad litem who “understood parental alienation” to serve at no charge in this case. Without visiting either parent's home or seeing the father and daughter together, Meyerson recommended removing the girl from her mother and giving her to her father, against the advice of the girl's physician and her therapist--both of whom Master O'Brien stopped from seeing the girl, based on Meyerson's recommendation. On the witness stand, Meyerson minimized the girl's fearful comments and the father's remarks about slicing the mother's face. Meyerson criticized the mother's behavior without recognizing it as symptomatic of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although O'Brien decided against awarding custody to this father, the case established Meyerson's role in Rhode Island Family Court cases. She moved from a cramped office in Riverside to a suite at the Regency Plaza and became the Court’s leading promoter of the so-called “Parental Alienation Syndrome.” In 2006, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges warned that references to “parental alienation” fails to meet evidentiary standards and should be stricken from custody evaluation reports. See page 24 of Navigating Custody and Visitation Evaluations... at the NCJFCJ website. Complaints against Meyerson and others who base recommendations on “parental alienation” should be submitted with documents to the RI Department of Health, using complaint forms on their website, to the professional standards and ethics committee at the RI Psychological Association website, with copies to: Parenting Project, 134 Mathewson Street, Providence, RI 02903.Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-12494828193442740562009-01-01T15:34:00.058-05:002009-01-09T06:34:39.487-05:00Building a ChronologyCustody scams depend on creating confusion with rumors, lies, false accusations, secret meetings, and undocumented decisions in judge's chambers. These true stories can sound incredible.<br /><br />The first step I have found most useful is to get documents in order, including police, medical and court records, reports, correspondence, lawyer's itemized bills, children's drawings, school papers, and especially photos and recordings. Pin down everything that helps to explain how this story grew, including people's motivations and litigation strategies. <br /><br />I begin by putting a date at the upper right corner of every possible document, giving year first, then month and day: YYYYMMDD. I hole-punch the pages and place original drawings in plastic sleeves to organize chronologically in notebooks. <br /><br />On a computer Word document or Excel spread sheet, I use the same date-format to list documents and events. For example: <br /><br />19981023 Sue and Joe meet<br />19990225 Sue and Joe marry<br />19990511 Sue enters shelter<br />19990603 Sue goes home<br />19991008 Joey born<br />19990108 Police report: Joe arrested 1st time<br />19990109 3-page letter from Joe apologizing<br />19990115 counseling with Chris Smith, LCMSW<br />20000220 Joe goes to Florida with his girlfriend<br />20000225 Joe sends postcard to Joey from Florida<br />20000310 Sue files for divorce<br /><br />As the list grows more extensive, I often color-code entries. For example, every entry referring to the guardian <span style="font-style:italic;">ad litem</span> has its own color. Every appointment with a specific court-ordered psychologist has another color. When these two contractors meet together, each one's name is highlighted in its own color. Sometimes converging dates reveal connections among contractors who function as a cabal. <br /><br />When you do this, you build a data base of critical details that will assure accuracy and accessibility for many writing projects.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOgZZt0187I8OPWIJ9t-4I-z4Mj40_MrX_nPo-Qjuvhyphenhyphen8UVr4CQ0jT5nt4JvYZSnXrSvFFQPwV-e4kO_H-56jl73QPgd9u8_8bWk4BgBBbDA3LcgX0v3739WQ7rZ0xaUXfTjldagsRuk/s1600-h/h3G6nw.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOgZZt0187I8OPWIJ9t-4I-z4Mj40_MrX_nPo-Qjuvhyphenhyphen8UVr4CQ0jT5nt4JvYZSnXrSvFFQPwV-e4kO_H-56jl73QPgd9u8_8bWk4BgBBbDA3LcgX0v3739WQ7rZ0xaUXfTjldagsRuk/s400/h3G6nw.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288163557370698914" /></a><br /><br />When you think chronologically, it is natural to use an active voice, which is a much stronger form of writing than the passive voice. It is simpler to say <span style="font-style:italic;">I ate an apple</span> than <span style="font-style:italic;">An apple was eaten by me.</span> Name the actor before the action. This makes the sentence more chronological and simpler to grasp without having to read it again. <br /><br />One of the easiest ways to improve writing is to circle these static verbs: <span style="font-style:italic;">is, are, was, were, will be.</span> Try to rewrite without them. This forces us to think more precisely about what is happening and to write more succinctly with active verbs. <br /><br />Lessons in good grammar and writing skills are online. Just google these subjects. For example, by googling "passive active," you can find handouts like these: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/grammar/g_actpass.html<br /><br />Social workers and psychologists sometimes use the passive voice as if it makes their assertions sound objective, scientific, and authoritative. I call this writing style the <span style="font-style:italic;">Voice-From-On-High.</span> (I will add some examples from court reports by guardians <span style="font-style:italic;">ad litem</span> and clinicians.) <br /> <br />When custody stories get too complex, listeners drift. Audiences appreciate our efforts to keep words precise, focused, and brief. <br /><br />Shape and polish everything you write like a jewel. Set it aside; read it again. Shorten words, phrases, sentences, until they flow smoothly with no confusion about the meaning. Do not use five words if two will do. You will gain facility at using the same story for different purposes, perhaps in a letter to the editor, an op-ed, a freedom-of-information letter to a government official, statehouse testimony on proposed legislation, a blog, a song, a children's story.<br /><br />As I became familiar with several custody stories, I combined themes they had in common, such as: profiteering by lawyers and clinicians; teen dating violence leads to custody scams; how information gets extracted from children in court-ordered visits to use against them in court. <br /><br />Try to observe court hearings and people's interactions directly. Write about what you see and hear. Quote documents directly and annotate them, substituting pseudonyms for the children and their family. Avoid hearsay or speculation that will make your story less credible.<br /><br />Finally, do not give up when others cannot tolerate these stories. <br /><br />Many people have experienced horrendous forms of abuse. True stories about childhood abuse and official malfeasance can awaken painful memories. Those who turn away may have good reasons to feel fragile. Some are trying to hold back a flood of rage and despair. <br /><br />Do not try to tell the whole story at once. It is better to give your readers too little than too much, which can be overwhelming and frighten people from this cause altogether. <br /><br />Ending custody scams will take time. We need to equip ourselves for a long, steady campaign. <br /><br />Give your audience reasons to hope. Among the best reasons for hope will be you and your writing.Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-73207449917265898262009-01-01T15:34:00.057-05:002009-01-09T06:34:19.265-05:00Good Government AlliesMany of us writers tend to be reclusive. But we cannot mount an effective movement alone. Our untested ideas are often sophomoric. (That can feel embarrassing, but it is perfectly normal!) <br /><br />Be intentional about seeking comfortable friendships with people who know more about state government than you do. Build a network with allies. Together extend your reach to a wide range of experts. Respect their time and ask succinct questions to inform your strategies and compensate for any blind-spots. <br /><br />To change the custody courts, we must change the law. The primary way to do that is by writing bills and lobbying for them in the state legislature, which has responsibility for domestic relations and child protection.<br /><br />Lay people often feel intimidated trying to write legislation, which involves careful analysis of existing laws and definitions. It is not enough to simply insert a good idea. All new legislation must be harmonized with existing state laws. <br /><br />To do that, work with your allies in the community to find a sympathetic state legislator who will submit your ideas as drafts to legislative lawyers, who can refine them and connect them to existing laws. <br /><br />These legislative counsels will produce two companion versions of the bill--one for the House of Representatives and one for the Senate. You will need a legislator in each house to shepherd through this legislation, ideally a representative and a senator who actually sit on the House and Senate committees most likely to consider the bill. <br /><br />The next phase is developing talking points and testimony for legislative hearings. Organize witnesses who will tell a legislative committee how they have been affected by problems in the existing law. You may need to help them write succinct statements explaining the impact of this law and why it needs to be changed. Set up a model hearing so your witnesses can practice presenting their statements and answering questions effectively. <br /><br />Draft sample emails, letters, and phone messages, and organize a campaign to persuade legislators on the committees hearing your bill to promote it with their leadership and to make sure it passes. Identify those legislators who can best influence the governor to sign. Then your bill becomes law. <br /><br />Start by reaching out to potential allies who may not have thought about this issue, but who might support your bill as part of their own legislative package. Coalition partners might include organizations promoting good government, like Common Cause and League of Women Voters, and others who work on issues relating to women and children, such as Coalitions Against Domestic Violence, National Organization for Women, American Association of University Women, and United Way. The American Civil Liberties Union may be a potential ally, but may be more likely to protect civil liberties of the accused over those of alleged victims. <br /><br />Research your state's legislation promoting good-government. These are hard-won tools that can help us end the scandal in custody courts. Start with Google or another search engine: Search for good-government themes (such as: open meetings, conflict-of-interest, financial disclosure, ethics commission, whistleblowers' protection, etc.) + your state. Here are some Internet links to begin:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Open Meetings Laws</span><br />http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/<br />The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press offers an Open Government Guide as a complete compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. Each state's section is arranged according to a standard outline, making it easy to compare laws in various states. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)</span> <br />The state version of this federal law goes by different names. In Rhode Island, we call it APRA, for the Access to Public Records Act. It allows people to request information that government officials must provide within ten days. The Parenting Project used this law to get information from our child protection agency:<br />http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/therapeutic-jurisprudence-in-Rhode-Island.pdf<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Anti-SLAPP Suit Legislation</span><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP<br />http://www.thefirstamendment.org/antislappresourcecenter.html<br />The United States and California constitutions grant every person the right to participate in government and civic affairs, speak freely on public issues, and petition government officials for redress of grievances. Yet, individuals and community groups are often sued for exercising these constitutional rights. These suits are known as "SLAPP suits," or "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation." <br /><br />Soon after Rhode Island's Anti-SLAPP Suit legislation passed, a batterer tried to name me and our agency as third parties in his custody case because we were helping his wife. Our attorney identified his motion as a SLAPP suit because he was retaliating against our public participation on behalf of battered women. The judge threw out his motion against us. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Merit Selection of Judges</span><br />http://www.ajs.org/selection/sel_stateselect.asp<br />Those states that elect judges put justice on sale, throw open the door to profiteering, conflicts of interest, and the cabals that run custody scams. Where does your state stand on merit selection and public evaluation of judges? In Rhode Island, the Parenting Project has testified against Family Court judges seeking elevation to higher courts, based on their roles in custody scams. We attended interviews of candidates for judgeships and for child advocate. We submitted questions for Judicial Nominating Commissioners to ask candidates. And we sent a petition under the State's Administrative Procedures Act asking the Judicial Nominating Commission to change its rules and to require candidates for chief judge in any court to submit written statements about the improvements they needed in that court. We recently submitted this op-ed to the Providence Journal: <br /><br />(727 words) <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Improve the process to choose our Chief Justice</span><br />by Anne Grant <br /><br />Should the Judicial Nominating Commission ask candidates for Chief Justice how they might help our courts serve the public more effectively?<br /><br />In September, the Parenting Project petitioned Rhode Island’s Judicial Nominating Commission under the Administrative Procedures Act to require candidates for chief of any court to submit written statements of their views about issues facing that court and their visions for improving its performance.<br /><br />We wrote: “the invitation to provide such a document would, among other things, show that the JNC, and more particularly our state courts, rise above personalities and politics to the highest principles of jurisprudence. Seasoned attorney applicants who love the law, revere the court system, and recognize the need for continuous improvement would have the opportunity to focus proactively on the court where they hope to serve. We believe that many applicants would offer valuable recommendations.”<br /><br />Although the Act requires a substantive answer within thirty days, JNC chairperson Stephen Carlotti replied that the Commission would not consider our petition until they had a vacancy to fill. They now have four vacancies following the retirements of Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams and Family Court Associate Justice Howard I. Lipsey and the deaths of District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio and Family Court Associate Justice Gilbert T. Rocha. <br /><br />The process to fill these vacancies needs fine-tuning. But now the JNC has no time to promulgate a new rule, which would require a draft, public notice and hearings on the proposed change. Commissioners can still ask applicants to discuss their concerns about the judicial process and their ideas for improvements. But it is too late this time to require written statements.<br /><br />That’s too bad for the commission, the governor, and legislators, who might make wiser decisions if they had more substantive information about what these candidates will do if appointed as chief justice. Too bad also for the public whose lives will be directly affected by the court.<br /><br />Why did the Parenting Project make our request to the JNC?<br /><br />We are a group of volunteers, including professionals and litigants involved in Rhode Island’s Family Court, who worry about children’s safety. We started meeting in 1996 to focus on custody cases in which the court seemed to punish children who protested domestic violence or sexual abuse by removing them from the parent they sought to live with and “reunifying” them with the parent they feared.<br /><br />Judges who preside over Family Court and Superior Court may be nearing retirement also. We hoped that the JNC would find merit in our proposal and recognize the urgency of inviting candidates to write their views and visions for improving a system that struggles with enormous burdens. Just as our nation weighed the ideas and proposals of presidential candidates, Rhode Island needs to evaluate prospective judges. The JNC’s nominating procedure is the only place where that can happen.<br /><br />Rhode Island is the only state where judges enjoy life tenure without review. Their salaries and pensions have long been among the highest in the nation. Two of Williams’ predecessors left the high court in disgrace in 1986 and 1993. Few would deny that our courts still have room for improvement. <br /><br />It is hard to imagine any credible candidate seeking a lifetime position who would not expect to give specific reflections on critical issues and possible solutions related to that job. By urging applicants to undertake such analysis in writing, to describe best practices, and to envision improvements in our courts, the JNC could provide a valuable resource to Rhode Island. <br /><br />Rather than examining applicants through the narrow lens of a single judicial position, such a rule could establish a process that encourages constructive dialogue within the community of judges and lawyers. This may catalyze positive change from within the system. <br /><br />Candidates’ papers would stimulate discussion and produce a keener appreciation of judicial issues by students, journalists, and the larger public. These JNC documents would offer insight to each candidate’s thought process, temperament, and wisdom in approaching potentially divisive matters.<br /><br />If the JNC fails to ask candidates to set forth their views and visions in writing, we hope Governor Carcieri, the leaders of the Judiciary Committees in the House and Senate, and the press will, at the very least, ask all judicial candidates this vital question: What are your priorities for improving the court where you seek to serve?<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Anne Grant coordinates the Parenting Project at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, Providence. She is a retired pastor and former executive director of the Women’s Center of Rhode Island (parentingproject@cox.net).<br /></span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3874890500818795601.post-34275158091281175692009-01-01T15:33:00.011-05:002009-01-07T12:58:48.190-05:00Screenplay StructureHere are some helpful resources to start thinking about a story as a movie: <br /><br />http://www.write-bros.com/<br />http://www.keepwriting.com/<br /><br />I adapted the following from Michael Hauge, “Screenplay Structure/The Five Key Turning Points of All Successful Scripts,” www.screenplaymastery.com. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">ACT 1<br /><br />Stage I: The Setup</span> <br />10% (10 pages, based on standard screenplays in which 100 pages=100 minutes)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Draw the reader/audience into the initial setting of the story. Reveal the everyday life that the hero has been living. Establish identification with the hero by making the hero sympathetic, threatened, likable, funny and/or powerful.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Turning Point 1: The Opportunity </span> <br />At 10% (page 10)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Present the hero with an opportunity to create a new, visible desire that will start this character on a journey. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stage II: New Situation</span> <br />Next 15% (to 25%: to page 25)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The opportunity produces a new situation, and the hero reacts to it.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Turning Point 2: The Change of Plans</span> <br />At 25% (page 25)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Something happens to your hero one-fourth of the way through your screenplay that will transform their* original desire into a specific, visible goal with a clearly defined end point. <br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">ACT 2</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">At this point, you have defined your story concept and revealed your hero’s outer motivation. (The outer motivation is the visible finish line that your audience is rooting for your hero to achieve by the end of the film.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stage III: Progress</span> <br />Next 25% (to page 50)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Your hero’s plan seems to be working as she or he takes action to achieve their goal. <br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Turning Point 3: The Point of No Return</span> <span style="font-style:italic;"></span><br />At 50% (page 50)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">At the exact midpoint of the screenplay, your hero commits to a goal. Up to this point, she or he had the option of turning back, giving up their plan, and returning to the life they were living at the beginning of the film. Hero burns bridges and jumps in!<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stage IV: Complications and Higher Stakes</span> <span style="font-style:italic;"></span><br />Next 25% (to 75%: around page 75) <br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Achieving the visible goal becomes far more difficult. Hero has much more to lose if he or she fails. This conflict continues to build until, just as it seems that success is within the hero’s grasp… <br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Turning Point 4: The Major Setback</span> <br />At 75% (around page 75)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">A major setback occurs to the hero that makes the audience think all is lost. This disastrous event leaves the hero with only one option.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">ACT 3</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Hero must make one last, all or nothing, do or die effort as hero enters…<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stage V: The Final Push</span> <br />Next 15% (to 90%: to page 90)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Beaten and battered, hero must now risk everything she or he has, and give every ounce of strength and courage they possess, to achieve their ultimate goal. During this stage of your script, the conflict is overwhelming, the pace has accelerated, and everything works against your hero, until she or he reaches…</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Turning Point 5: The Climax</span> <br />9% (to 99%: to page 99)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Several things must occur at the climax of the film: the hero must face the biggest obstacle of the entire story; The hero must determine their own fate; and the outer motivation must be resolved once and for all. This is the big moment where your placement will be determined by the amount of time you need for… </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stage VI: The Aftermath</span> <br />1% (to 100%: page 100)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">No movie ends precisely with the resolution of the hero’s objective. You must reveal the new life your hero is living now that he or she has completed their journey. There is little to show or explain, and the writer’s goal is to leave the audience stunned or elated. So the climax occurs near the very end of the film. (In most romantic comedies, mysteries and dramas, the aftermath will include the final five or ten pages of the script.)</span><br /><br />* Rather than repeating unwieldy pronouns (she or he/his or her) I have sometimes used the "singular they." This has long been part of common usage. ("No one will get granny off that mountain unless they kill her first.") Rather than being a grammatical purist on this, I believe we can let grammar evolve to meet a greater need for inclusion of both sexes, with clear meaning and graceful expression.Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.com