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Recently, the British Medical Association reported in a highly biased article in The Guardian that 33 percent of women are abused and 25 percent are raped. I spoke with Erin Pizzey, founder of the battered women's shelter movement, England, who told me her newest article on family violence issues, When did you last beat your wife?, was published in the July 5, 1998, edition of the The Observer, a widely-read British Sunday Morning newspaper.
Pizzey mentioned that The Observer prominently displayed a lead-in to the article on their lead-in page.
Please write to The Observer to thank them and to provide your comments and views on domestic violence in relation to the article.
Pizzey specifically asked that as many people as possible write in, because, as she says, "The feminists will be furious and flood them with letters." We must counteract that with as many people as possible sending positive comments about the article.
It is important that we don't let this opportunity slip by. Therefore, please, contact the newspapers and magazines that you know about in your local area and let them know about Erin Pizzey's article. In addition, it will be beneficial to send copies of the article to as many of your favorite politicians as you can.
Don't forget to mention that the article was published in today's edition of The Observer. The fact it was published in a prominent newspaper is an asset that must be exploited. We must forge the iron while it's hot.
A united movement?
by Jon S. Wood
The Liberator is at pains to unite father's rights groups. Every month I find there are more groups with more chapters...all of them with very similar goals and only minor variations. Just when are these groups going to form a cohesive lobbying effort to change the system?
At one legislative hearing I attended the room was filled with fathers and some noncustodial mothers giving heartfelt testimony. After an hour of one guy after another giving the same ol' story, I started going around the room asking who they were and what orginization they belonged too.
"Excuse me, do you belong to a father's rights group," I asked one fellow.
He looked nervous, scared or uneasy, maybe because his turn to testify was coming up, but the guy told me quite abruptly, "No!"
Maybe an hour or so later, he gets up to give his testimony and nearly is crying over the shaft he got in family court.... just like all the rest of us.... sole custody for mom, visitation for dad, huge dollars for mom... visitation interference, threats and allegations of abuse.... etc etc... for dad.
After the hearing, I went back to the guy and asked, "How in hell can you not be a member of a father's rights group? Do you actually think playing the part of a 'nice guy's' sorry ass club is going to change the laws, public perception and the legal system if you play with quasi-feminist organizations that emphasize 'fairness'? This is a gender war! Didn't you hear the feminist attorney define custody based on the number of dishes cleaned by momma while ignoring the father's overtime check to pay for the dishwasher? You were crying up there for justice and yet you'll go home and rejoin your pansy ass group to appease, appease appease. You're never going to win a damn thing with that group. By forming your own femi-boy group with feminist sisters, you're losing it for all of us. Just because some in the father's rights groups have some different ideas.... Get past it. By factionalizing the fathers rights movement, your shooting yourself in the foot."
I told him to quit showing up if all he was going to do is go up there and cry... and then appease the system with some feminist led "Parental rights group."
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