Action Alert |
Action Alert: Psychology Today Praises Woman Who Murdered Her Husband as ‘Great Revenge’
Fathers & Families is sending the protest letter below to Psychology Today via regular US mail and email. To add your signature to the letter and send it to Psychology Today, simply click here and fill out the fields.
Letter from Fathers & Families to Psychology Today:
Kaja Perina
Editor-in-Chief
Psychology Today
115 E. 23rd St., 9th Floor
New York, NY 10010
212-260-7210
Dear Ms. Perina & Psychology Today:
In the shockingly irresponsible article "Sweet Revenge" (Psychology Today, January/February 2010), Regina Barreca, Ph.D. praises convicted Texas killer Clara Harris for her "great moment of revenge." The act for which Barreca praises Harris? In 2002, Harris repeatedly ran over her ex-husband David, as David's daughter Lindsey sat in the front seat of the car begging Clara Harris not to kill her father.
While Barreca praises Clara Harris, Lindsey, who loved her father and was only 16 years old at the time of the killing, publicly denounced Clara Harris for "the ultimate act of selfishness, caring only about obtaining revenge and thinking not one bit about how her horrible act was going to affect me or my brothers, Brian and Bradley. Anyone who shared my ride in the car that evening, seeing my dad’s face as he was about to be hit, and experiencing the horrible feel of the car bumping over his body would understand that this murderess deserves no sympathy.”
Lindsey says that Clara mistreated and neglected David, and that her father often confided in her how lonely he felt. Coupled with Clara’s temper and evident capacity for violence, David had ample reason to want to get out of the relationship. Instead of letting him go, Clara killed him. Does Psychology Today feel this is praiseworthy?
Besides condoning violence, Barreca's article also reeks of gender bias. The majority of divorces are initiated by women, not by men, and research shows that women's decision to divorce often catches their husbands by surprise. These men don't just lose their wives, they often lose their children, too, and their rationale for feeling betrayed is often far more legitimate than Clara Harris'. Does Barreca also feel it would be "great revenge" for these men to murder their wives?
No type of marital or post-marital violence should ever be condoned, much less praised, and Psychology Today should immediately and clearly distance itself from Barreca's reprehensible statements.
Sincerely,
Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director, Fathers & Families
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers & Families
To learn more about the Clara Harris case, see my co-authored Houston Chronicle column Suppose Roles Had Been Reversed in Clara Harris Case (1/27/07).
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Top Stories |
Mom Has Mild Learning Disability, so State Takes Her 4-Day-Old Baby Away, then Tops It off by Pretending Baby's Dad Doesn't Exist
Seventeen-year-old Kerry Robertson of Fife, Scotland has apparently been found by some authority or other to have "mild learning difficulties." She became pregnant by her boyfriend, artist Mark McDougall, 25. Last September, they decided to get married, but the Fife Council intervened and prevented the wedding from taking place. By what authority or for what reason the Council did that, I have no idea...
Robertson was pregnant and the same Fife Council decided that her learning disability required it to take her child into foster care immediately after it was born. Somehow, she and McDougall got wind of the Council's intention, so they fled to Ireland where they thought they'd be safe from the clutches of Fife Council. They were wrong.
[J]ust four days after Ben was born, Irish social workers marched into the maternity ward and forced them to hand him over.
Robertson had just finished breastfeeding the healthy infant when he was taken.
Last night Miss Robertson said: ‘When the Irish social workers said I had to give the baby to them, I felt sick.
‘I didn’t want to hand him over and I started crying because I couldn’t believe what they were saying. I thought I had misunderstood.
‘I had just been breastfeeding him.
Just before they took him away, I told Ben I loved him and gave him a kiss.’
Mr McDougall added: ‘Kerry let out a dreadful cry when she realised what was happening – it was terrible. She is just in pieces.
...As the social workers told us the news, the two midwives who have been caring for Kerry were so distressed that they fled the room.’
Whatever her learning disability might be, Robertson and McDougall apparently did all the appropriate prenatal care and their baby is healthy. Reading the article linked to, it's impossible to detect the slightest impairment in Robertson's thought processes. In fact, she seems reasonably thoughtful and well-spoken. For example, she seems to understand the value of breastfeeding.
And what about McDougall? As far as this article tells us, he has no impairments whatsoever. And yet authorities felt perfectly entitled to take his child from him. It's highly ironic in this case, of course, but it looks like Robertson's disability is being used to infringe upon his rights as well as hers. It's as if the Scottish and Irish states look at a mother and father and see only the mother. If she's unable to care for their child, then the child is taken. His capabilities are ignored. It's like he's invisible...
...unless there is some very important information about Robertson that the Daily Mail article doesn't tell us, the behavior of the Fife Council is beyond outrageous. To deny this couple the right to marry is unsupportable. To take their child before they have any opportunity to demonstrate whether they can care for him or not is unjust in every way. It's an attack on the child's wellbeing, since overwhelmingly, children do better when raise by both biological parents.
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Fathers and Families is a family court reform organization with a comprehensive strategy, an impressive history of legislative and fundraising success, and the largest reach of any advocacy group of its kind:
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Action Alert Update |
Success: Bill to Protect Disabled Parents from Family Court Abuses Passes Committee Unanimously
Last week Fathers & Families issued an Action Alert in support of Arizona HB 2348, a bill to protect disabled parents from child support and alimony abuses. As usual, your response was overwhelming—we thank all those who participated.
The bill passed the Arizona House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee unanimously. We thank Arizona House Member Frank Antenori, who sponsored the bill, as well as Mark Beres of the American Retirees Association and the ULSG, and Fathers & Families’ legislative representative Michael Robinson, who worked with Beres. Robinson was also instrumental in the passage of a similar bill, SB 285, in California last year.
We will be following the bill as it advances through the Arizona legislature—thanks again to all of you who responded to our Action Alert and participated.
F & F is also working with advocates and legislators on similar legislation in Texas and New Mexico, and is laying the groundwork for legislation in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois. It also appears that a failed 2009 legislative effort in Iowa has been revived by CA. SB 285's passage. In addition, a U.S. Congressman has taken up this issue and we are helping him craft a federal bill which we expect will be introduced in the near future. To learn more about the bill, click here.
The abuses being committed in family court concerning disabled parents' VA benefits remind many F & F supporters of their own experiences in family court--a lack of respect for the law, violations of due process, fathers (and sometimes mothers) being financially plundered and shook down for money they don't owe, etc.
F & F is creating real, tangible family court reform today. Give to the organization which fights for you by clicking here.
Together with you in the love of our children,
Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director, Fathers & Families
Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Fathers & Families
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