OMG...this book finally arrived in the mail. I was too cheap to pay the full price, but Amazon.com has lots of used ones listed, and the one I got is in excellent condition.
Having said that, I must admit that I am not necessarily in such excellent condition as I begin to read it. If I hadn't believed Elsa Newman before--And I do. You know I do. I don't think I've ever doubted her.--I would believe her after just beginning to read this book by Leora N. Rosen and Michelle Etlin.
From the first page of the first chapter, where the authors write about Dr. Elizabeth Morgan* through five case histories--which I have read-- through a discussion of "The System"--which I am just beginning and on to "A Proposed Solution," the two writers are taking me on a journey that makes me want to shed tears... makes me want to shout denunciation of a system that has allowed this to happen...makes me to march into some office, somewhere and read the riot act to somebody. Only I would not have the vaguest idea where to begin.
All I can think of doing is just what I am doing: writing on the net, in blogs and on my own website, as well as any other website that will listen to me. **
Anybody out there got any other ideas?
This thing of Elsa Newman--as well as the thousands of other mothers and children who are suffering like her and her two sons--has got to come to light somehow.
Until I started reading this book, I guess it didn't hit me, just how many mothers are suffering because they are committed to protecting their children who are abused and how many children are being abused in this fashion. At that, I suspect the full reality has not even begun its descent on me yet.
Thousands of women!
Multiple thousands of children!
What have we come to in this country, that we allow this?
What is our legal system about, that it allows our children to suffer and not only allows, but assists in their suffering?
Where are our social agencies, the ones supposed to protect these children?
Of such agencies, Michelle Etlin wrote to me:
"They should 'read the rights' to any mother who approaches social services with her children, if those children say they have been abused by their father or step-father:
"You have the right to remain silent; you have the right to retract your complaint and walk out of here without us doing an investigation; you have the right to stop telling us what your children have described; you have the right to pretend it didn't happen. If you choose not to exercise those rights, anything and everything you say -- and even things you don't actually say but we think you believe -- can and will be used against you in a court of law. You will be treated worse than a convicted criminal, without being charged with any crime, so you cannot hope to prepare a defense. You have no right to appointed counsel or to effective counsel or any other kind of counsel, no right against self-incrimination, no rights at all except you have the right to keep this all to yourself and flee from the tender ministrations of the Department of Children's Services because believe us, you have walked into a snare when you set foot in our offices."
That is what we have come to in this country.
That is what our legal system is about.
There is where our social service agencies live and work.
I am beyond totally disgusted. Far, far beyond.
*Remember Dr. Morgan? She's the physician and surgeon who went to prison rather than tell where her daughter had gone; she believed the child had been raped by the child's father, refused to allow the father to see the child and was sentenced to jail until she chose to tell where the child was.
**Some won't listen. I attempted to post on one site that said I would have to use fictitious names in such a story, if I wanted to publish on their site. Duh! What good is a story about Elsa Newman, if I can't say her name?
Having said that, I must admit that I am not necessarily in such excellent condition as I begin to read it. If I hadn't believed Elsa Newman before--And I do. You know I do. I don't think I've ever doubted her.--I would believe her after just beginning to read this book by Leora N. Rosen and Michelle Etlin.
From the first page of the first chapter, where the authors write about Dr. Elizabeth Morgan* through five case histories--which I have read-- through a discussion of "The System"--which I am just beginning and on to "A Proposed Solution," the two writers are taking me on a journey that makes me want to shed tears... makes me want to shout denunciation of a system that has allowed this to happen...makes me to march into some office, somewhere and read the riot act to somebody. Only I would not have the vaguest idea where to begin.
All I can think of doing is just what I am doing: writing on the net, in blogs and on my own website, as well as any other website that will listen to me. **
Anybody out there got any other ideas?
This thing of Elsa Newman--as well as the thousands of other mothers and children who are suffering like her and her two sons--has got to come to light somehow.
Until I started reading this book, I guess it didn't hit me, just how many mothers are suffering because they are committed to protecting their children who are abused and how many children are being abused in this fashion. At that, I suspect the full reality has not even begun its descent on me yet.
Thousands of women!
Multiple thousands of children!
What have we come to in this country, that we allow this?
What is our legal system about, that it allows our children to suffer and not only allows, but assists in their suffering?
Where are our social agencies, the ones supposed to protect these children?
Of such agencies, Michelle Etlin wrote to me:
"They should 'read the rights' to any mother who approaches social services with her children, if those children say they have been abused by their father or step-father:
"You have the right to remain silent; you have the right to retract your complaint and walk out of here without us doing an investigation; you have the right to stop telling us what your children have described; you have the right to pretend it didn't happen. If you choose not to exercise those rights, anything and everything you say -- and even things you don't actually say but we think you believe -- can and will be used against you in a court of law. You will be treated worse than a convicted criminal, without being charged with any crime, so you cannot hope to prepare a defense. You have no right to appointed counsel or to effective counsel or any other kind of counsel, no right against self-incrimination, no rights at all except you have the right to keep this all to yourself and flee from the tender ministrations of the Department of Children's Services because believe us, you have walked into a snare when you set foot in our offices."
That is what we have come to in this country.
That is what our legal system is about.
There is where our social service agencies live and work.
I am beyond totally disgusted. Far, far beyond.
*Remember Dr. Morgan? She's the physician and surgeon who went to prison rather than tell where her daughter had gone; she believed the child had been raped by the child's father, refused to allow the father to see the child and was sentenced to jail until she chose to tell where the child was.
**Some won't listen. I attempted to post on one site that said I would have to use fictitious names in such a story, if I wanted to publish on their site. Duh! What good is a story about Elsa Newman, if I can't say her name?
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