Father’s Day - I often wonder about the value of these “celebration” days.
One of our neighbours locked himself inside all day today.
For him this is remembrance day: when he remembers his kids never call him…
Two other guys were sitting outside getting very drunk very quickly, racing to beat their hearts in it’s desperate race between acute pain and numbness - numbness had a temporary victory, but they know pain will always win.
Much like Christmas, for many around here it is more like sticking a finger into an open wound than it is about celebration.
Ours is one of the most violent areas in NSW (32,000 Police Attended DV reports in 2006), and yet, I really wonder if it all that rage is really just a cover for male sadness…
2 responses so far ↓
1 tanis // Sep 10, 2007 at 12:48 am
male sadness or not, it is a completely unacceptable form of expressing it. Personally i dont believe it is male sadness, i believe it is ABUSIVE men abusing women, and feeling desolation when their partners and children finally escape from their abuse. women and chidren DO NOT leave men for no reason. You need to be educated on domestic violence issues URGENTLY!!!
2 Jon Owen // Sep 10, 2007 at 10:38 pm
It is unnaceptable, you are correct.
None of these men ever set out to become abusive, like it is a chosen state. We really need to be finding the root causes that then drive the abusive behaviour. This can lead to alternative responses being modelled and taught. This effectively short-circuits the abusive response through education. Root causes will not be identified or shared by men being judged and labelled as ABUSIVE - no matter how awful what they do is.
TANIS - that means TEARS in Tetum (East Timor), perhaps appropriate if you have been a victim.
Right now we have a 12 year old boy asleep in our spare room, for most of his life he has witnessed his father beating his mother senselessly. We hope that we can play a small part in helping this young man heal the hurt he feels deep within his confused little soul. If nothing is done, then there does stand the chance he will grow up and do the same.
Now, if he were to grow up and do the same would you call him a callous, intentionally ABUSIVE man knowing what he has been through?
We all need education on DV issues, don’t we…
Leave a Comment