Sunday, May 15, 2005

 

Take It Easy Sam!

I guess I'd like to hear more of what happened, but anytime you have a kid going to the hospital with welts on him from a beating by his father you have to wonder. I can't think of anything that would warrant such severe physical punishment.

In case you haven't heard, councilman Sam Malone (a Republican) was arrested for beating his 14 year old son who on Friday was dismissed from a school field trip for disciplinary problems. It's really bad timing for Sam as the Republicans were expected soon to announce their endorsements for the 2005 council campaign.

Seems as though Republicans and Democrats alike are coming to Sam's defense, but if found guilty of this, it's not a good candidate for the republicans to support.

Comments:
The assumption is that the kid "needed" to go to the hospital.
All seem to rely on newspaper articles to develope their passionate position and , especially in Cincinnati, that is really dumb.

The word "beat" has a lot of degrees. I was "beat" by my parents, teachers, priests, nuns and some acquaintances. Only the acquaintances' acts did I find unjustified and deserving of retaliation or resentment. This idea that a kid should never be beat is naive. Given our society, I don't think it is consistent or even natural.

We refuse to convict cops for brutality. We have the death penalty. We bomb civilians. Our soldiers shoot citizens if they can feel the meagerest of a threat. We enjoy cop shows where the cop are constantly abusing the constitutional rights of citizens. We adore violence in hockey games and other sports. We don't care that millions die every year in African countries. We don't prosecute assaults between children, adults, bullies, drunks, wives, etc. We don't really care as much if it is black against black as we do for black against white or even white against white for that matter. And now your indignant over a kid getting "beat"?

Perhaps Malone was over the edge but I still recall when my mother dicovered the effectivness of the rubber hose from the enema bag. Up until that point, spanking was literally more painful for my mother than me.

I also remember coming home and finding my son playing in the woods across the street from my house after being told never to enter the street or cross it. I beat his ass hard. It had been less than a month since I had to handle a case where a child in College Hill was turned into a vegetable after being hit by a car. My son never ever went into the street after that until he was much older and he got to be older than the vegetable kid.

I don't know the circumstances or thoughts that played a part in the Malone incident, but then I may not be as smart as the rest .
 
I could not disagree more with the post by kraut. Beating to me shows the lack of mentaility on the part of an adult in dealing with a child. But then again, maybe Kraut sees nothing wrong with someone like his boss coming up to him with a belt and giving him a few welts. Joe, I agree that we need to find better ways to communicate than with belts to children. Maybe if Kraut spent more time with his children, he would not have to resort to these beating reponses. This went out with the dark ages.
 
There is no clear indication that psychologically that there was malicious intent behind the discipline. Not a heartless statement but I've been whupped before and I bruised. The trauma from the kids standpoint will leave relatively soon afterwards but guess what when the media gets involved and then parades the situation about the trauma sticks and in a way the media participates in the second wave of abuse.
He was whupped, disciplined or beat depending on your personal definition but especially in situations like this I would not trust that all the information coming from the media is correct or accurate. There is too much passion surrounding the situation right now let Sam, Chris, andthe family work this out and reflect, that'll be better for all parties involved.
 
Sour... Thanks for your comments. I actually agree to a certain extent with you. Obviously in today's society there is some debate on the use of corporal punishment for children. I tend to fall on the side that it doesn't help in the long run. However, I know there are studies on both sides of the fence on the pyschological impacts of such discipline.

And I totally agree with your statements around the acceptance of violence in our society. However I have to wonder about your condemnation of police officers use of force, while at the same time indicating significant corporal punishment by parents is okay. Seems to me these are the same... in fact, I would suspect that some of the biggest cases of police force is on criminals whose own parents failed to keep them in line (exactly what Sam Malone indicates he's trying to do, instill a sense of respect for authority to keep his child from trouble).

I agree with you on most of the others, the death penalty is brutal, violence on TV/Movies, folks dying in foreign countries from starvation, disease, etc. However, I think you have left off one category of brutality, and that is the culture of death surrounding Abortion.

But as for Malone, maybe my statements were a bit too harsh, but if he is in fact guilty of his alleged crime, than I find it difficult to support a child abuser as a Republican candidate. If he is found innocent, then it's a different story.
 
Joe!

You have a problem with "However I have to wonder about your condemnation of police officers use of force, while at the same time indicating significant corporal punishment by parents is okay."?

There is big difference!
Acts by parents and those within family are so different from outsiders' acts. Police represent government which has become more and more remote from being family. Dependant upon where in society one exists will color perception of government and police.
 
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