After reading up on murders of children that happened in the past two weeks alone, I am wondering how can we change this. I got several Tweets and updates from Kandi former member of the female singing group Escape. Her family has been hit with a tragedy that may have been intentional not to mention she is also remembering her brother who she lost in high school.
I got a call this morning from Phillip O'Barry Academy just as I was leaving to take my son to school and the other end the recording said "hi parents we are calling to inform you of a death of one our students" this young man died Friday 10/2/2009 due to complications from an enlarged heart, he was on the wrestling team and an honor student. My, I send his parents my condolences.
What can we do? Just recently a man was charged right here in North Carolina for kidnapping and molesting his two adopted daughters one of which was pregnant. What can we do people? Our community needs attention, our children are crying out for our affection. Then almost two weeks ago a pregnant fifteen year old was shot and killed at the bus stop waiting to go to school. Now she is gone her child left with no mother. People we got to make some major adjustments.
I think about the mother of the Chicago honor student, Kevin Miller, who was beaten and killed by four other teens and we still don't know or understand the motive. Why are our children so angry? Then just yesterday a 13 year old was shot and killed at a car wash in Queens, NY. He was also a honor student, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now he is gone, another statistic that won't make to see 25. What can we do people? As parents, friends, teachers, mentors. We have to find a solution. We are losing our children at alarming rates, and the world just continues to move as if there is nothing wrong. Our current condition needs serious recognition.
In God We Trust! Bring him back into our schools. Allow our children to pray. Teach our children to befriend one another, teach our children to look out for one another. Change starts from within our children micmic what they see on TV, hear on the radio and what they learn at home and in school. We have the power to change this people. I challenge you all to promote positive change! Starting today!!
Click the links below to follow some of the stories on the killings I mentioned;
http://globalgrind.com/content/1041313/UPDATE-Kevins-Family-Needs-Our-Support-For-His-Funeral/
http://hellobeautiful.com/your-world/exclusive-kandi-speaks-on-death-of-fiance-aj/
http://globalgrind.com/content/1034001/Minister-Farrakhan-On-Derrion-quotA-Special-Young-Manquot/
http://globalgrind.com/content/1022209/LITTLEMISSDIVASWORLD-Chicago-Teen-Derrion-Albert/
http://globalgrind.com/content/1035225/He-Has-A-Name-KevinMiller-13-Year-Old-Shot-In-Head/
Violence Is A Dead End
Very many listened from many countries too
I watched as again he sculpted history in his Cairo debut
Obama is never surprising but my admiration grows
Learning each time the wisdom of what he knows
Experience is a great teacher but faith is best
No doctrine has every superseded its test
Countries in their pursuit of freedom and rights
Exterminate other countries in brutal fights
Islam and Christianity have similar belief
So why do these religions sustain so much grief
As a young boy in Indonesia where people were predominately Muslim
Didn’t prohibit the Christian few from their worship, didn’t stop him
Even though he was but a boy he fully understood
A people shouldn’t be stopped when their values are good
Do on to others as you would have that they do onto you
Explains the paths of these religions and there are others too
No future lies ahead when religions are identified by cruel trend
Defined by bloodshed, not when Violence Is A Dead End!
does fear of flying or death take us thereto know life older than any witnessand now past, may have eyes forseen our dareto greedily seek for our uniquenessonce tearing free from our primitive rootmore fragile than the tree, to think and willcould humanity take us from disputeor will violence feed us our fatal pill?concern not for another's attendancewho keeps to assuage intellectual prideas captains map amoral contrivanceof right, but confess a just course abidethey'll speak with no doubt of true directionwhile more, appeasing perceived mutiniesthan terms imbibed in common religioncould we know truth from man's hypotheses?coroners will define life from its deathand vision life's divination by linelike rings of trees never reveal its breathwill Horus' eye remain bounded in trinefingers and symbols just point back at youlike breath is not caught in your reflection Nihilism, will words always bring you towhy, do we accept nothing over One?
Written 3/17/2009, Copyright ME Wilson
LinkedInMyra Spearman has sent you a message.Date: 3/31/2009Subject: CALL TO ACTION - PLEASE FORWARDHello Everyone: Today, I spoke with Illinois State Representative, Robert Pritchard. He is a long time proponent of abating domestic and family abuse. He needs to hear from everyone. I asked him to author legislation called, "Duncan and Jack Law" which would only allow "Supervised Visits" to non-custodial parents who have either1). Violated Orders of Protection and/or2). Received a Guilty Conviction stemming from domestic and or family violence.Before ordering visitation, a judge needs to make sure that there was no abuse in the home. If abuse is determined, the non-custodial parent should either be granted Supervised Visitation or No Visitation Previlidges at all. Please email him and let him know that you're in support of this legislation or similiar legislation.bob@pritchardstaterep.comIf you have something better to add please feel free... anything helps...Duncan and Jack are the 2 little children that lost their lives this week at the hand of their father. You can read the story at:http://www.chicagotribune.com/ news/local/chi-missing-boys-dead-31-...Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the Illinois Rep. I'm going to be sending it to NYS as well.There's not a Congressman, Senator, etc... that should say no to this.Dear Sir:I am creator and administrator of the web community Please Help Missing Children.http://helpthesechildren.ning.com/Sir, the loss of Jack and Duncan Connolly is beyond tragic. The actions of the law enforcement involved in this case was a detriment that led to their deaths. They did not take seriously the severity of their father's condition, nor did they act on the information they were given. The Amber Alert for the boys was far from long enough. This should NOT have happened. Had there been a law in effect designed to PROTECT our children in the event of a mentally ill parent, the deaths of Jack and Duncan may have been prevented.PLEASE author legislation called, "Duncan and Jack Law" which would only allow "Supervised Visits" to non-custodial parents who have either1). Violated Orders of Protection and/or2). Received a Guilty Conviction stemming from domestic and or family violence.Before ordering visitation, a judge needs to make sure that there was no abuse in the home. If abuse is determined, the non-custodial parent should either be granted Supervised Visitation or No Visitation Previlidges at all.Someone that may be a strong supporter of this would be Congressman Gary Miller.SincerelyKathryn ComstockAdministratorPlease Help Missing Children
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Diane Tikacs, a former neighbor of the Connolly family when they lived in Algonquin, signs a poster for Duncan Connolly at a memorial in the northwest suburb. The boys were killed by their father who then took his own life. (Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo / March 30, 2009)
BATTERED EXAMINING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
2 boys found dead; mom rips the courtsAfter 3-week search, boys are found dead with their dad in central Illinois; mother decries system that OKd unsupervised visitsBy Jo Napolitano, Carolyn Starks and Joel Hood | Tribune reportersMarch 31, 2009
Amy Leichtenberg worried this day would come, and she begged the judicial system to prevent it.
In court documents dating back to 2005, she detailed her estranged husband's threats against her family and fought unsuccessfully to keep him from having unsupervised visits with their two sons. Michael Connolly violated the orders of protection against him six times, police records said, and he often vowed to kill himself rather than be separated from the boys.
Connolly, 40, disappeared with Duncan, 9, and Jack, 7, on March 8, prompting a nationwide search. Their bodies were discovered Sunday near a Christmas tree farm in a remote area of Putnam County.
Police described the deaths as a double homicide and a suicide, but released few details about the killings. The boys' bodies were found in the back seat of their father's 1991 Dodge Dynasty, while Connolly's body was discovered about 60 yards away.Leichtenberg declined to comment Monday, but she issued a statement lashing out at the judicial system that allowed Connolly unsupervised visits.
"No parent should have to bury their babies," she said. "Duncan and Jack, Mommy loves you to the heavens and back.
"I feel that the judicial system failed me," she said. "I pray that the courts listen to the warnings from other parents like me."
Though Connolly and Leichtenberg lived in northwest suburban Algonquin for several years, much of their bitter custody battle took place in LeRoy, a small town near Bloomington where Leichtenberg moved with the boys after ending her marriage. She received orders of protection against Connolly there, including a current order, barring him from contact with her.
Connolly, an unemployed pharmaceutical salesman, violated the order six times but was only charged with four misdemeanors between July 2006 and October 2007, McLean County State's Atty. William Yoder said. He met with Connolly for an hour a few months ago at Connolly's request and believed him to be "unbalanced," Yoder said.
He declined to discuss his office's specific involvement in the custody battle.
"This was a tragic event," Yoder said. "This had the worst possible outcome."
Police began a search for Connolly and the boys three weeks ago when he failed to return them after a scheduled visit. McLean Sheriff Mike Emery conceded there was a delay in the Amber Alert about the abduction, saying the department's initial attempt did not meet all of the criteria required for the notification. Pressed to discuss the delay, the sheriff said he would not criticize the investigation.
At LeRoy Elementary School, where Duncan was in 3rd grade and Jack was in 2nd, the brothers' desks had been left untouched since their disappearance. Blue and green ribbons, the boys' favorite colors, were tied to trees, and parents taped pictures of the missing brothers inside their car windshields.
"In small towns something like this affects the whole town, not just one pocket or one neighborhood," LeRoy Supt. Gary Tipsord said. "We had prepared for a lot of different outcomes, but I don't think any of us expected this."
Putnam County authorities discovered Connolly's car about 5 p.m. Sunday near a Christmas tree farm about 8 miles south of Hennepin. Police say they do not know of any connection between the family and the secluded site.
Police would not say how long the bodies had been there, if they suffered obvious injuries or whether a weapon was recovered.
Connolly's aunt, Joyce Connolly, said his family rarely saw him after the couple separated.
"I feel sorry for Michael," she said. "I know that sounds terrible, but he must have been so tormented."
Court records and police accounts portray Connolly as an abusive husband who tried to force Leichtenberg to stay in their marriage. He threatened to cut open her and her parents and once told Jack that he would find "a younger, prettier, nicer mama," according to court documents.
When Connolly sensed Leichtenberg was about to leave him in 2006, she said he pressured her to sign a paper giving him custody of the boys if they divorced. He also demanded his wife make a videotape in which she claimed to abuse her sons, Leichtenberg said. It's not clear she did either.
"He went into a rage again and told me if I didn't get home he would kill me. I went home, and he told me if I ever take his boys again he would hunt me down and kill me and my parents and cut us open," Amy Leichtenberg wrote in her petition for an emergency order of protection in July 2005 in McHenry County Circuit Court.
Neighbors realized something was wrong with the couple's marriage shortly after they moved into their Algonquin neighborhood in 2003. Friends described Connolly as "controlling" and "manipulative" toward his wife and sons. Leichtenberg often would use neighbors' telephones to call her parents because her husband didn't like her speaking with them.
"She could never live a normal life," former next-door neighbor Jim Gerardi said. "That's the sad part about it, because he was watching every single move she made."
While Connolly was out of town on a business trip in 2006, neighbors said they helped Leichtenberg pack her car, and she and the kids sought refuge at a domestic violence shelter.
Leichtenberg filed for divorce in May 2006 in McHenry Circuit Court. In her petition, she described hundreds of harassing phone messages her husband left for her and her family.
In the messages, Connolly outlined stipulations for the divorce: He wanted visitation with his sons alone and one day a week with Amy alone and promised not to hurt them, court documents said.
Leichtenberg withdrew the petition without explanation in December 2006. She returned to the family's home in Algonquin, but neighbors said she hid inside the house and rarely socialized after the reconciliation.
The couple separated again a short time later, and Leichtenberg moved to LeRoy, where a bitter custody battle ignited. She wrote in court documents in April 2007 that he had called her home and her cell at least 18 times.
In a Tribune interview after the boys disappeared, Leichtenberg said Connolly was granted unsupervised visitation rights in December. She said she begged the McLean judge to deny the request.
"All Michael would do is file his own motions, and the judge was basically tired of him and gave him what he wanted."
Tribune reporters Andrew L. Wang and Stacy St. Clair contributed to this report.
<a href="jnapolitano@tribune.com">jnapolitano@tribune.com</a>
<a href="cstarks@tribune.com">cstarks@tribune.com</a>
<a href="jhood@tribune.com">jhood@tribune.com</a>
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-missing-boys-dead-31-mar31,0,3316104.story?page=2">http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-missing-boys-dead-31-m...</a>
The epidemic proportions of the drug problem in younger people are in direct correlation of the strict laws against alcohol. Alcohol is sold only by licensed merchants that require strict identification to purchase their products. When is the last time you saw an alcohol "dealer" on the corner? I'll give you a hint, it was just before prohibition was repealed. Young people who no longer have access to alcohol are turning to other more accessible drugs. The so called drug problem in this country is not because of the drugs themselves, but the laws that make them so lucrative to unscrupulous persons who are willing to do anything to sell their product. If drugs were legalized they would be regulated, keeping them out of the hands of children. PS A's could be aired on the dangers of harder drugs. Not to mention they could be taxed! Imagine this, a pack of cigarettes cost under a dollar to produce but often cost over $5 to purchase. Where does the extra $4+ go? TAXES! If drugs were legalized it would take drug dealers off the streets, squash dangerous gangs that thrive on illegal drug money, take them out of the hands of kids, and could pay for this "bail out" with the tax revenue in under 5 years. Not to mention creating jobs to make, distribute, and advertize different products. To me Sir it really seems like a no brainer. The likes of Al Capone in the 30's, Frank Lucas in the 70's, and Pablo Escobar in the 80's, made millions due to illegal drugs. I'm quite positive there are drug dealers still making millions that just haven't been caught yet. Prohibition didn't work then and it obviously doesn't work now. I hope that one day there won't be a drug problem in this country, but unfortunately that wont happen until it is properly distributed by licensed merchants.
"Marijuana" is NOT the proper name for Cannabis. Marijuana is a Mexican slang word for "weed". The use of the term was widely popularized in the 30's during the attempts to oust Mexican laborers who were taking American jobs in the depression. Please take note of this and stop using this derogatory term.
I believe that with Obama the senceless violence going on will evidently stop. In my oppinion viloence is a serious thing that is going on in Boston, MA. The violence that has happened is the cause to my family's miseries. I lost my brother, Franklin Monteiro, to the senceless violence 4 years ago on November 7, 2004. To this day we still havn't found the person who killed him but I know that one day we will get justice. Violence is why I fear to go down my street without getting shoot. I can not get killed because of the violence because I am the oldest now and I have to be here for my mother. I know many people who would agree with me when I say that violence affects many of our lives and does not allow us to live our lives peacefully. What do you guys think about the violence going on in Boston, MA [ well mainly Dorchester, Boston ] ??!!??
-Ariana Depina
When one quarter of the computers are invectid by a virus the problems are so big you can't solve them without beeing angry!
When you get angry people will react in a way which is very predictable and will make mistakes again!
Thisis a way you can solve new corruption because corruption per defenition goes with terror, this is right wing terror!!
When you underestimate the terror you can't win this war against computercorruption!
It's gigantic and will go into history as a total human madness, sorry if you see me laughing.
Barack Obama often borrows from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he speaks of "the fierce urgency of now". In the following article the author looks at another of Dr. King's inspirational passages. Based on Dr. King's guidance, the author makes a case for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/10-3
Internanational Human Rights Court Affirms A Failure TO Protect
Mother’s File International Complaint Against United States, violation human rights of abused www.StopFamilyViolence.org MOTHERS FILE INTERNATIONAL COMPLAINT AGAINST UNITED STATES Mother's day complaint claims United States courts violate human rights of abused women and children. NEW YORK, On May 11, just before Mother's Day weekend, ten mothers, one victimized child, now an adult, leading national and state organizations filed a complaint against the United States with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. The case claims that U.S. courts, by frequently awarding child custody to abusers and child molesters, has failed to protect the life, liberties, security and other human rights of abused mothers and their children. "For more than 30 years U.S. judges have given custody or unsupervised visitation of children to abusers and molesters putting the children directly at risk," says Dianne Post, an international attorney who authored the petition. "These horrendous human rights violations have been brought to the attention of family court systems, and state and federal governments, to no avail. We turn now to international courts to protect the rights and safety of US children." The complaint details several cases with ..ed medical evidence of child sexual abuse, yet in each instance the abusing father was given full custody of the children he abused. Several of the mothers were jailed by the courts because of their persistent efforts to protect their children from abuse, several were ordered not to speak of the abuse and not to report abuse to authorities. Every mother was denied contact with her child for some period of time though none was ever proven to have harmed them. "My life was completely shattered apart on that day and my childhood was destroyed," said Jeff Hoverson, the adult child petitioner, about the day a family court judge ordered sheriff deputies to deliver him into the custody of his abuser. "It was as if I was just kidnapped. I was torn from everything I knew....I was made into a possession rather than a child." Hoverson endured years of trauma and fear living in his father's home before escaping and returning to his mother at age 17. He is haunted by years of feeling helpless to prevent his father's night-time visits to his sisters' bedrooms. "The cases in this petition represent the proverbial tip of the iceberg," says Irene Weiser, executive director of the online organization Stop Family Violence. "We are contacted by an average of three protective mothers each week who have lost custody to child abusing fathers. This is a nationwide crisis of enormous proportion." "The lives of thousands of children and mothers have been irreparably harmed by family courts across our nation," says Joyanna Silberg, Ph.D., executive vice-president of The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, another national organizations supporting the petition. "The years of trauma and psychological abuse because of the courts' failings result in lasting emotional damage to the children they are supposed to protect." Studies of gender bias in the courts, conducted in the 1980's and 90's, found disturbing trends of courts minimizing or excusing men's violence against women, and favoring the abusers. In 1990 the United States Congress passed a resolution recommending the prohibition of giving joint or sole custody to abusers. Seventeen years later, the practice continues unabated. Ten years ago today, leading national organizations were joined by members of Congress in a protest in Washington D.C. to again raise awareness about the problems in family courts. Today, petitioners say, the problem is systemic and widespread in family law courts across the nation. The petition seeks a finding from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the U.S. has violated the Declaration of the Rights and Responsibilities of Man and the Charter of the Organization of American States and a statement of the steps that the U.S. must take to comply with its human rights obligations in regards to battered women and children in child custody cases. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was created in 1959 and is expressly authorized to examine allegations of human rights violations by members of the Organization of American States, which include the United States. It also carries out on-site visits to observe the general human rights situations in all 35 member states of the Organization of American States and to investigate specific allegations of violations of Inter-American human rights treaties. Its charge is to promote the observance and the defense of human rights in the Americas. Dianne Post, a 1980 graduate of the University of Wisconsin law school, has worked on issues of gender based violence since 1976. In addition to private practice and legal aid, she has taught legal classes and been a consultant working or living in Russia, Cambodia, Hungary and some dozen other countries. She is currently in Vladivostok, Russia. In addition to The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, other national organizations supporting the international lawsuit include: National Organization for Women and the NOW Foundation, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Justice For Children, National Family Court Watch Project, Legal Momentum, Family Violence Prevention Fund, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Domestic Violence Report, Sidran Traumatic Stress Institute, and the National Center on Sexual and Domestic Violence. The petition is supported by many state organizations as well. In December 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition against the United States with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights for their failure to protect Jessica Gonzales' three children from their abusive father, who murdered them. Their petition, the first of its kind, asserted that domestic violence victims have the right to be protected by the state from the violent acts of their abusers. For additional information, contact: Irene Weiser, Stop Family Violence iw@stopfamilyviolence.org 607-539-6856 The petition and supporting ..action is available on the Stop Family Violence website on: www.StopFamilyViolence.org View the petition at: http://www.StopFamilyViolence.org/468
Tags: abuse, child, civil, constitutional, discrimination, domestic, human, rights, violence
