I don’t think democracynow could have put together a more emotional show than they did today.

The domestic violence segment is heartbreaking.  I don’t know how anyone can look at that woman’s injuries and ask her why she didn’t try to run away!  Who does that?!  (I’m really trying to restrain myself from using every choice expletive I know).  Given that she will either not have a job, or has one that pay is so low she cannot survive on her own, it will take nearly being beaten to death (or verbally abused to the point of the soul’s death), before she will even *think* of leaving.

I’m sure the documentary will explore the subject, but having not seen it, I can’t foresee that they will explore everything–the impact of toxins on rage; the circle of domestic violence, war, and domestic violence.  The interview mentions that the abuser was a body builder—red flag right there because of steroid use and other drugs that are known to produce aggressive feelings. 

Secondly, mercury and other heavy metals can produce feelings of rage and apparently promote criminal behavior.  Since one can’t really escape mercury, because it’s everywhere, I think it should be standard to do hairtests on those charged with crimes.  One can only wonder at what we would find–and how detoxing someone acting in a criminal way could change their life to a positive one….

My biggest hope for the film is to gather all the evidence of the rape/violence against women culture we live in.

I’ve touched on the domestic violence connection to war here.

My blog on the justification of rape…because *she’s just a whore*  here.

My blog on the military and sexual harassment/rape here. I wish that I could say my prediction of expressions of “outrage” and then business as usual was wrong…but, alas….women will still have to go through their chain of command, who may or may not be harassing them, too, or encouraging an atmosphere of bullying (which is what sexual harassment/rape/violence are).  How can we say that the youth are wrong for chanting misogynist lyrics when adults are condoning the treatment of women as second class?

I briefly volunteered for an organization that used lawyers and paralegals volunteering to help victims of domestic violence get protective orders.  It was hard to take–the first case I had, I was to interview the victim.  She unfortunately was not native to this country and her English was hard to understand at times, so there was a small communication barrier.  She was afraid of her victimizer, because he threatened to have her sent back to her native country, among other things.  The lawyer, trying to work within the laws on the books (that suck), told her to take the minimum that the judge would offer her.  I tried to convince her, based on the attorney’s advice. She refused.  The judge ruled against her petition, leaving her vulnerable.  I never felt so worthless for letting her down. She was understandably upset and immediately felt we had let her down.  It was hard.

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The second part of the show, about Alzheimers’ and Dementia was particularly hard.  It’s coming up on a year anniversary of my mother’s death…and it’s already starting to affect me.

It was especially hard to see the faces of the patients–I saw my Mom in them.  Music is definitely a way to reach them, as it was one of the last things my mother lost, but in the end, she was so detached that I don’t know whether having her own headset would have helped.  The nursing home did play Beatles and other 60s music, but that was in the dining hall, not in the patients’ rooms.  Mostly, they watched mind-numbing TV that doesn’t stimulate them by any measure.

And, as above, a hairtest on heavy metals should also be standard for these patients….my God, think of the lives saved if these folks were toxic and able to be saved through detox….