This is a letter I sent to the Honolulu Weekly.
You can check the edited version at
http://honoluluweekly.com/letters/2009/11/homegrown-terrorists/
Here's what I sent to the editors!
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This is in response to 2 letters on domestic violence, one by Dr. Bouchard, the other by Larry Holbrook.
Brouchard is correct to refer to domestic violence as "domestic terrorism".
How else would you describe a person grabbing his/her spouse by the throat, throwing the victim down the stairs and other use of deadly force?
However, Larry Holbrook seems angray at Dr Brouchard for calling it like it is!
Holbrook accusses victim advocates of "tearing families apart!"
Holbrook also minimizes the issue by saying "every family experience conflict during their lifetimes."
We're not talking about minor disagreements here! In domestic violence, there are throats grabbed, bodies thrown down the stairs, heads banged against the wall, jaws broken, noses bloodied, and pregnant women kicked! There are stabbings and gunshots! Sometimes, the victim leave the home in a bodybag!
The abusers could be of either gender!
Little children see this and are scarred for life!
Well, if a child is growing up in a home in which one spouse is constantly using deadly force on the other, then why not have the justice system "tear that family apart"? Who can rationally argue that is a good environment to raise a child? Why not allow the abused spouse and the children start over a new life, with the abuser locked up in prison?
Holbrook says that abusers can change! But in too many cases, the change comes after multiple decades of abusive behavior! That's too long to wait!
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I wrote another blog post on this issue! It discusses the Chris Brown-Rihanna incident, abusive women, my run-in with a violent female attacker, self-defense, and other related issues! Check it out at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
