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Reader's comments on this article Add a new comment on this article |  from rainy
Saturday, July 28, 2007 - 18:37
(Agree/Disagree?)
Maybe because your book is on my mind, but hearing this song today, it felt like our collective voice, especially these lyrics:
"I was alone, Falling free,
Trying my best not to forget
What happened to us,
What happened to me,
What happened as I let it slip.
I was confused by the powers that be,
Forgetting names and faces.
Passersby were looking at me
As if they could erase it"
...
"I was alone,
Staring over the ledge,
Trying my best not to forget
All manner of joy
All manner of glee
And our one heroic pledge
How it mattered to us,
How it mattered to me,
And the consequences"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNixch31wmo
(reply to this comment)
| | | |  From Falcon
Sunday, July 29, 2007, 05:04
(Agree/Disagree?)
I remember the one by Linkin Park I listened to a lot just before I left:
"I don't want to be the one the battles always choose
Cuz inside I realise that I'm the one confused
I don't know what's worth fighting for
Or why I have to scream
I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way
I know it's not alright
So I'm breaking the habit tonight"(reply to this comment) |
| | from rainy
Saturday, July 28, 2007 - 04:16
(Agree/Disagree?)
I noticed the book was published by "Green Shirt" something or other? Is that a reference to the Mo letter? Is it like, you're finally telling the truth for Davidito?
(reply to this comment)
| | | | from rainy
Friday, July 27, 2007 - 02:25
(Agree/Disagree?)
I'm reading the book at the moment, thank you all SO much! I always thought nobody (who hadn't been there) could understand my story told with my own voice, because our Family mentality was so wacky you really had to be brought up in it to get it. But people are going to hear your voices, you just went ahead and said everything. Everything. The memories it's bringing back! And the sense it's helping me make of those memories. If I had read this while still in, I would have left the next day, because it's so obviously true to anyone brought up in it.
Moon Beam, your dad NEEDS to read this book. Even MY dad needs to read this book. All family parents do.
(reply to this comment)
| From Falcon
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 05:19
(Agree/Disagree?)
We've sent him a copy and so far, no reply. He did go into a flying rage when he found out about it, however. Accused us of "unleashing forces of evil on the world" and me of planting a spy satellite system into the home computer which was mildly amusing and far more flattering. The girls on the cover were dubbed "emaciated little girls who aren't even you!" Duh. Poor old man. If I could feel anything for the guy, it would be pity. Fortunately, I am ambivalent to his pronouncements one way or another. There are none so blind as those who will not see, so why waste words?(reply to this comment) |
| | From rainy
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 05:37
(Agree/Disagree?)
Well he has the book. If there's any shred of a father in him, he'll read it. Your relationship with your dad is very similar to mine with mine. I want to send the book to him in Japan too, but I know he has a convenient place to put all the doubts, and it probably won't get through to the real him. It helped me a lot to hear you discussing the difficulties of accessing your father's true personality, something I've been struggling with all my life. You get that little glimpse when he'll remember his childhood, then it's all shut away behind cult mentality again. My poor sister still in with two young boys on her own in Mexico hasn't even got a childhood to remember. Thanks for helping me not to give up hope for her.(reply to this comment) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | From moon beam
Monday, July 30, 2007, 07:14
(Agree/Disagree?)
No worries Rainy. They do look rather haunting but the marketing department thought that was the one to go with as it encapsulates the horror of the story and our childhoods. And since publication most people have commented, sayng the cover is quite striking. Looking back at old photos of me at that age ( and Celeste on the old MWM videos) I was shocked to see that we were even skinnier then those dipicted on the cover and if it were not for our mandatory smiles and no murmuring rule-thats how I would have looked. --Apart from the cartoony style eyes ;-)
Take care (reply to this comment) |
| | from gaijin
Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 21:08
(Agree/Disagree?)
It's great that this book is getting so much attention as
the more people in the general public who know the real story behind The Family, the better. I would say that most people including religious people have very little idea about the Family. It sounds like an unbelievable story, until more people come out with testimonies and evidence. I saw a Youtube video with Kristina Jones being interviewed alongside two Family PR people years ago. What a champion. Inspiring to see a young woman being so courageous.
Good luck with everything.
(reply to this comment)
| | | | from nelcal
Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 11:35
(Agree/Disagree?)
Well it sure took guts and a mother's instincts along with the power of GOD to walk out of an abused and humiliated life....So glad that you are in an open world - making choice decisions for you family ...GOD BLESS YOU
(reply to this comment)
| from FYI
Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 22:51
(Agree/Disagree?)
A 'window' for victims of abuse
Historic legislation from Sacramento allowed abuse victims to take legal action against the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
By Marci A. Hamilton, MARCI A. HAMILTON is a law professor at Yeshiva University and author of the forthcoming book "How to Deliver Us From Evil: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children." hamilton02@aol.com
July 19, 2007
WITHOUT question, the bravest souls involved in Los Angeles ' $660-million clergy abuse settlement are the victims who came forward to sue the archdiocese. By now they have traversed more levels of Dante's inferno than anyone should have to experience.
But another heroic group has gone largely unrecognized — the Legislature. It is only because that body passed historic childhood sexual abuse legislation in 2002 that these lawsuits and settlement happened. That law created a one-year "window" into the legal system for claims that had been shut down by overly short statutes of limitations — as little as three years for some victims.
Indeed, in 2003, any California childhood sexual abuse victim could go to the courthouse and find that the statute-of-limitations lock had been taken off the courtroom door. And in they went — about 850 Catholic clergy abuse victims and 150 others who sued churches, the Boy Scouts and other institutions for employing known molesters. Even as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down California 's window for criminal prosecutions, the window has been held open for civil lawsuits.
In the Boston Archdiocese scandal, victims faced "charitable immunity" laws that limited the amount of financial damages they could recover. Expired statutes of limitations also weakened their cases, and as a result, they received much less compensation per victim. With the statute of limitations set aside, California plaintiffs came to the justice system with much more powerful claims.
The window law is the sole reason California dioceses and members of the church hierarchy, such as L.A. 's Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, were forced to face the prospect of truth-revealing trials and substantial damages. Once other California diocese settlements came in — and showed that plaintiffs had increased legal bargaining power — victims were able to demand release of church personnel files. The church has resisted releasing such files, but lawsuits filed under the window law revealed the identities of many perpetrators and their institutional enablers.
California 's window legislation has a beneficial ripple effect across the country as well. Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in John Doe vs. Archdiocese of Milwaukee, for the first time permitted a clergy abuse case to go forward, and it is highly likely that facts from a California case involving Father Siegfried Widera made a big difference. Widera had been transferred back and forth between Wisconsin and Southern California, and his California victims had laid out their horrific stories in court. The church hierarchy knew Widera was a convicted serial child molester and hid that fact from parishioners in both states.
California may be starting a trend toward unlocking courthouse doors for childhood sexual abuse victims. Just last week, Delaware became the first state to follow suit with a window law of its own. Its Child Victims Act creates a two-year window to file suits and abolishes the civil statutes of limitations on sexual abuse cases going forward. The New York Assembly has passed similar legislation, hearings have been held by the District of Columbia City Council, and the introduction of window bills is likely in a number of states this fall.
The beneficiaries of such bills extend well beyond clergy abuse victims, and the statistics are sobering. Multiple studies have concluded that at least 20% of boys and 25% of girls have been sexually abused — the majority by family or family acquaintances. There is a crying need to give these victims a shot at justice. One incest victim told me that she didn't come to terms with her abuse until her 40s, and when she did, she told her father she was going to sue him. His response? Don't be silly — I have the benefit of the statute of limitations. This is a woman who deserves the California-type window, and there are millions like her across the country.
It is shameful that most states have had such short statutes of limitations on childhood sexual abuse. Even though states, including California , have been lengthening those limits, that doesn't help past victims whose claims have expired. These victims have been foreclosed from justice while predators enjoy a system that protects their interests first and foremost. California has shown the rest of the country a more heroic and noble path to follow.
(reply to this comment)
| from radio five live UK
Monday, July 16, 2007 - 08:29
(Agree/Disagree?)
you need to click on the Stephen Nolan show sunday 10pm to 1am
Interview with the sisters is in the last half hour.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?fivelive/worricker
(reply to this comment)
| | | | | | | from wind
Sunday, July 15, 2007 - 15:36
 (Agree/Disagree?)
I got a chill when you mentioned Manuel, was his name also peruvian Manuel. If it's the same guy I was abused by him im Austria in '86. His wife walked in the room one time and didn't do anything but apologeze for interupting his molesting . I was 6 years old and would just freeze. i found a photo of him in my Grandparents house they had visited us before that was outlawed. Anyway Maria needs to be tried for her involvment . David berg was a sicko, but he's dead, she facilitated all his wierd ideas and helped him impliment his insanity on all our lives and should be held accountable.- M
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | From Wolf
Monday, July 16, 2007, 06:26
(Agree/Disagree?)
This fucker was last known to be living in Vladivostok, Russia. If you want to get back at him, I can help you. I was not abused by him but know several females who were; they were not willing to file testimony against him because they didn't want to bring up the old issues, but if you believe as I do that he should pay for his crimes you can write the Vladivostok authorities a letter. I can get their address for you and even phone them and tell them they have a dangerous abuser living among them and tell them I know people who will testify that he abused them as children. If they don't respond it can be taken further, but I won't get into further details here.
Write me if you want to persue this.(reply to this comment) |
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