Please forgive the interruption of my usual Wednesday Bits and Bites feature, but the entire morning has been taken up by a very worthy cause.
For the last 4 years, and for one more, I have been a participant in a large, ongoing research study involving abused women. The researchers involved have been meeting with partipants yearly, and have been documenting the effects of personal, social and economic resources on the mental and physical health of women in the years after leaving an abusive partner. Information gathered from this study upon completion will give the most in depth look at the changes women go through after leaving, and how the systems currently in place should be changed or altered to reflect actual data.
I volunteered to participate in the hopes that it can make a difference for someone else in the future. As with everything I do, if it changes things for the better, for even one person, I will have made a difference. A few hours out of my life once a year are nothing compared to the good that could result from it.
This years interview and assessment were particularly timely, considering the Scott Young saga currently in the news. Having met and talked with one of his victims, Colleen Preston, the need is still starkly clear, that both the short term and long term effects of emotional and physical abuse on a womans health and welfare are dramatic, and must be adequately addressed by lawmakers , social service providers and medical professionals.
Come again tomorrow, and I promise some intriguing Bits and Bites for you then!
Liala,
What can we do? This monster is not getting jail time. It is unthinkable that a man can break into a woman’s home with the intent to murder her and not get jail time! Had Glen Shaw not been there Colleen could well be dead now. She would be no match for the mayor. I can’t take this laying down. Women need to be there on Thursday and our voices need to be heard. This man is not the pillar of society he’s been made out to be, he is a woman abuser and needs to go to jail where he can become someone’s girlfriend.
If I havent given birth and am still able to walk, I would like to attend to hear his lawyers statements.
Sentencing has been pushed back to July 25th. Interesting development. I hope it is not to simply allow more time to pass in which the public might forget his admission of guilt and the determination of his sentence.
What can we do? United, push for a change in the faulty, unjust laws that allow free passes with no lasting records for first time wife-beaters. With domestic assault, there should be no conditonial discharges because the majoprity of men are, or will become, repeat offenders. Look at the recent Global piece on Scott Young. This is not his first experience. The reporters stated that a restraining order was issued for his first wife- reasons unknown – and his second wife reported an incident where charges were stayed and he was routed into counselling. Three women, three seperate instances, clearly establish a pattern that must be stopped firmly, now.
There must be some residual record that remains for any domestic assault conviction, to protect other victims down the road in the event the man has been,or does becomes a repeat offender. Once a beater,always a beater, whether its dogs, women, or children.
Time to stand up and be counted, people. Find your voice, and let it be heard. Let every woman who has been through an experience(s) with violence, an experience(s) with terror, and psychological abuse, come forward and show support for changing the current laws surrounding domestic violence, and let us save other women from having to endure the same.
” An unjust law, is no law at all ”