Basic HTML Version
We're supposed to be a child-centered
society that heaps lavish material
blessings on its pampered progeny,
and allegedly the younger generation
has never had it so good But in many
cases our kids are still getting the
short end ofthe stick, and we've got a
long way to go before we "turn the
heart ofthe fathers to the children."
HITTING
CLOSE
TO
HOME
by
Carole Ritter
Yi
ou've probably read a great deaJ lately about
violence in the farnily, especially child abuse
its various and sundry forrns. You've seen the
ocking pictures and read about the hideous
tortures sorne adults have infticted on their children.
You've been outraged by the unbelievable abuse of
power and authority sorne troubled parents have dis–
played. Or maybe, like sorne people, you've been trou–
bled more by the subject's having been brought up in
the fi rst place. While it's easy to evoke outrage at the
sight of "kiddie" pornography, people Like crusader
Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber have found it difficult to
get much of a reaction to pictures of maimed, beaten,
or dead children.
lt's easy to condemn the producers of pedophiliac
smut, but it's far harder lo condemn parents who
simply beat their children- to death or otherwise. Our
society dictates that children are our property, which
we have the right to damage if we so desire. And since
nearly everybody "hauls off and hits his kid a good
one" now and then, the stories of child beatings and
murders strike a bit uncomfortably close to home.
Blair and Rita Justice write in the book
The Abusing
Family
that "there is good reason to believe that
8
Harry
L//es