The strange career of patriarchy and race in the "belly of the beast"

This horrific, Good Friday night news story - Authorities: Mother Kills Two Children, Then Self  (watch video at link) - just jacked me the hell up from under myself. Nothing I'm dealing with compares to this tragedy.

So unsettling on its face, I couldn't tune it out.  And once I heard the details (such as they were), I just could not add, yet another "swirling of thoughts" to the already too-numerous ones floating around in my head.  My only choice?  Spew forth, and hopefully the drip will lead to a trickle, and then maybe a deluge - clearing my head of all the shit I've been seeing, hearing and feeling that just doesn't make sense.

It's been three weeks since this happened and I've heard nothing else about it in the local media.  I'm thinking it's because, as the officer so nonchalantly said in the video, "I can tell you that on the surface, it looks like a murder-suicide." 

First, I went off on a disgusted, "Damn!  More collateral damage from the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning Changeling's war."  And then, for reasons on which I can't quite put my finger, I got two very disturbing thoughts in succession which I said aloud:

1) "I sure hope there's going to be more investigation, because something in that milk ain't clean."
2) "I bet this is a Black family."

My eldest asked me, "What makes you think that, Mom?  The news didn't say that."  All I could say was, "Just seems so open-and-shut."   

And it did.  And it bothered me all night long. 

The next day, I got a call from this lively, Panamanian woman I'd met, at what passed for a dialogue on race relations (that's another "interesting" story I'll probably get around to telling) a month or so ago at a local community college.  Our conversation turned to the deaths and I repeated my hope that there'd be further investigation.  A divorced Army wife and long-time San Antonio resident, she looked at me and asked, "Was she Black?

Unnerved (because I'd been thinking the same thing), I said, "I'm not sure, but I'm going to try and find out."

Then she said, "You know they don't care nothin' about Black people killing each other down here."  (I thought to myself, "Or anywhere else for that matter.")

We talked for awhile about how the Changeling's war was producing collateral damage both abroad and at-home, with families torn asunder by stress due to falling-outs about money, or infidelity - and of course, the plethora of difficulties should they not come home in one piece either mentally or physically.

I told her I was going to see if there was anything more online and that I'd try to find out if the family was, in fact, Black.  I told her I'd let her know, and hung up. 

Then, I found this even more distressing and confusing, Holy Saturday story which accompanies the photo above - Threat preceded apparent double-murder suicide:

Richard Griffin sensed danger.

In the midst of a divorce, the U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen talked early Friday to his estranged wife, who was living in far West Bexar County with their two school-age sons.

In that conversation, Sheena Griffin threatened to kill herself and their children.

Richard Griffin, who filed for divorce March 1 and was scheduled to soon deploy to Afghanistan, quickly called local authorities and asked them to check on his family. He was worried, he told them.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found the two-story home in the 12000 block of Gable Oaks engulfed in heavy smoke.

Inside, in the children’s upstairs bedroom, firefighters made a grisly discovery: The two boys, ages 8 and 9, were dead from gunshot wounds and lying together on a twin bed, their 36-year-old mother on the floor, also dead.

“On the surface, it looks like a double-murder suicide,” Bexar County Deputy Chief Dale Bennett said, adding that a handgun was found at the scene.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jose Trevino said authorities were called to the home shortly before 7 a.m. It wasn’t their first time to that residence, he said, as deputies had gone to the home several times in the past because of marital disputes.

Authorities said the fire started downstairs and caused $75,000 in damages. They believe gasoline was used to start the fire. As investigators combed through the home and collected evidence, an Army chaplain escorted the distraught Richard Griffin to San Antonio.  (more at the link)

According to my source, the Griffin family was indeed, Black.

I don't know the man, I don't know his wife and I certainly don't know their marital situation.  But, taking the stories together (all three of them), everything about this screams, "ASK MORE DAMN QUESTIONS!"

1. First of all:  "in the midst of divorce," "U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen" and "...about to deploy to Afghanistan" are all issues with which most military families contend at one time or another, but particularly now.  That he'd just filed for divorce on March 1st while on pre-deployment duty and living in Killeen, coupled with that Coldwell Banker sign already on the lawn - seems strange.
2. The husband spoke to his wife sometime before 7 a.m. .  They had a conversation - that only he heard and knew about -  during which she threatened to take, not only her life, but the kids' as well.  Strange.
3. "Sensing danger," he hangs up and calls local cops to do a welfare check at his home and they high-tail it over there - arriving some time around 7 a.m. (according to the video).  Not so strange that they immediately went.  Welfare check requests are common when a spouse is deployed.  And if nothing else, Texas IS a place that takes their "patriots" seriously.  But, when the cops arrived, the house was engulfed  - in SMOKE.  They couldn't get in and had to wait for the firefighters (according to the video) who found the bodies - kids on a twin bed and the mother on the floor.  How long had this "fire" been burning??  They got there around 7 a.m. - when kids are getting up and out for school by 8 a.m., How come nobody saw the "fire" before then?  According to another television station's report in which the wife has already been blamed for starting the fire:  "The blaze was contained to the downstairs area of the home. Officials said the fire appeared to have been purposely set in numerous places on the first floor. More than $75,000 in damage were done to the home."  $75,000 in damage - downstairs!  Real estate values here are way more realistic than most places in the country.  And if that figure is even close - that's a whole lot of damage for this house - in such a short period of time (remember he spoke to her before 7 a.m. and the cops immediately responded somewhere around 7 a.m.).  Strange  
4. According to the video, the next door neighbor heard "screaming/really loud yelling" coming from the house that woke her up just minutes before the cops arrived.  But she wasn't aware the house NEXT DOOR was on fire??  They all died from single, gunshot wounds and none had suffered any burns as a result of the fire according to my source.  Who was doing the yelling?  And if she heard it "just minutes" before the cops arrived, how come she heard - not one gunshot?  As close as the homes are to one another - not a single person reported that they'd heard any gunshots.  Strange.

Fort Hood's approximately a 2-3 hour drive away, so I'm not saying the husband was there to do this.  Besides, he's got an alibi for his whereabouts during the time the bodies were discovered (unless of course, he was there in the wee hours of the morning and left (What?  It could happen!).  All I'm saying is, I'm just not convinced - without more details and investigation - that the wife did this (and no, it's not because I think Black folk don't do that kind of shit.  I must admit though - "When We Were Colored?" - I did think that way).

It bothers me that the "double murder-suicide" ruling was just accepted by the media with no apparent, substantive questions asked.  It bothers me that there seems to be no one following up on this story.  The funerals have been held (hope an autopsy was done) and it's like it never happened.  It bothers me that we've heard nothing about any continuing investigation.  And yes, it bothers me - that they were Black - and no one seems to care.

They took this man's word for everything.  Who speaks for the wife?  In patriarchal institutions, like the military and the police particularly, there's an inherent value in the words of men over women's.  Not just in Texas, but all over!

Two cases immediately jumped into my head (yeah it's crowded up there) after mulling this over - mainly because I was living in Texas and then Florida during both.  The first, was that of Darlie Routier in Rowlett, TX back in 1996.  She sits on death row, accused and convicted of stabbing her 5 and 6 year-old sons to death.  Her husband and baby were asleep upstairs and she and the two older boys had fallen asleep watching TV downstairs.  In early 2008, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed a 2007 ruling denying DNA testing of hair and blood evidence collected in 1996 which her attorneys believe, will prove her story that an intruder stabbed her, and killed her sons (there were three fingerprints found not belonging to anyone in the family or any of the scene investigators). 

This case is especially interesting because it involves new Dallas D.A., Craig Watkins (about whom I've written, here and here), a young man I respect immensely for his dogged determination in freeing (as of 2008) 17 men who were wrongly accused - based on - DNA evidence.  He inherited Routier's case and, based on the afore-linked piece about the reversal, he seems to believe that they've got the right person even though Darlie supporters disagree (I hope he wasn't just regurgitating the "company line" because he was new on the scene).  The show American Justice covered the case and it is available on You Tube in five parts, entitled, "Mother on Death Row."

The other, was the 1997 murder of Sheila Bellush in Sarasota, FL at the hands of hit-man, Joey Del Toro - paid for by her millionaire husband, Allen Blackthorne of San Antonio.  After having stalked her since their 1987 divorce - and through her new marriage to Jamie Bellush  into which quadruplets were born - he had her killed.  Her body was found by one of the daughters she shared with Blackthorne - with her two year-old quadruplets toddling around in her blood.  Sound like a "Murder By The Book" story?  It was.  Author, Ann Rule chronicled the horrific story in her book, "Every Breath You Take" in 2001.  It took THREE YEARS before he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

 As for the Griffins - yes, there was a history of marital discord.  The cops admit they'd been there before - on many occasions.  That, in itself is disturbing.  Domestic violence cases, the majority of which are reported by women, are rarely taken very seriously by the police.  I met a woman in January, who'd been arrested for domestic violence (another around-to-it draft).  She was so distraught at finding out her husband had long been cheating that she was uncontrollable when the cops arrived and they took her in.  She had no family here and was worried out of her mind about what would happen to her two kids because she was in jail. 

Women have a hard row to hoe when dealing with the rampant sexism and misogyny in patriarchal institutions.  And women of color have it even worse.

"13/30" - The Damaged within - Part 2

UPDATE:  Covering their ass is what Congress does best,  This just in:  S1963: Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 - a bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide assistance to caregivers of veterans, to improve the provision of health care to veterans, and for other purposes - was passed in the Senate 12 days after the Ft. Hood killings.  Would those 12 day have mad a difference for Mahor Hassan?

  Watching the early stages of CNN's coverage of the shooting at Ft. Hood with my son and husband, I asked aloud - already knowing the answer, "Why's it gotta be a terrorist attack, or possible gang activity before they even know what the hell is going on???"

And when the "lone" shooter was identified - with that "funny-sounding" Middle Eastern name and they began the "terrorist" speculation in earnest (still not knowing what the hell was going on!) - I asked, again already knowing the answer, "Why can't it be that this guy - a CARE-DAMN-GIVER for the legions of soldiers returning from war zones, suffering the effects of having seen some horrific shit - be suffering some PTSD of his own??"  Or, "Why can't it be that some people (military troops ARE people) are just damned tired of fighting, killing, dying, losing limbs and worse - for wars in which there are no rational explanations!!"

The answers to my first questions are pretty clear: - He is Muslim.  And the MSM puts more stock in "being first with a story" way more than they do in being first with facts.  Such is the current mindset of America's Fourth Estate.  And the answers to the second set of questions?  He is Muslim.  And the MSM has long been in bed with politicians who'd rather fan the persistent fears of the "other" upon which this country was founded.  But more importantly, this country is a patriarchy, immersed in the language of manliness - Real soldiers can't be broken.

Though we, as a country, are doing a little better (and that's VERY little!) with domestic violence, violence against women, child abuse and sexual abuse, we - and that includes some of the "experts" - are a terribly long way from understanding a simple, yet important fact - TRAUMA IS TRAUMA no matter its origins and if its effects are left untreated, it not only threatens those sharing the sphere with the perpetrators - but the perpetrators themselves.  As a country, we just can't seem to get that through our, I'm-okay-so-you-must-be-okay consciousness, even though the manifestations of that bass-ackward thinking have been swirling around us from 1619 to today.

We function as if our branches of government, our corporations, our banking industry, our churches and certainly our military services - all those seats of perceived power - are not all bastions of "manliness" and intolerance - still.  And if we're honest, that women have managed to break into them and/or advance up any of those chains-of-command has not made one bit of difference over all.  Conversely, the complicit female presence has pretty much maintained the status quo, or made it worse - all in the name of feeling powerful themselves.  So where do the "damaged within" go for real help?

Chris Hedges explains where, in Stop Begging Obama and Get Mad:

"The soldiers and Marines who return from Iraq and Afghanistan are often traumatized and then shipped back a few months later to be traumatized again. This was less frequent in Vietnam. Veterans, when they get out, search for the usual escape routes of alienation, addictions and medication. But there is also the escape route of violence. We risk creating a homegrown Freikorps, the demobilized German soldiers from World War I who violently tore down the edifice of the Weimar Republic and helped open the way to Nazism.

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars have unloaded hundreds of thousands of combat troops, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, back into society. According to joint Veterans Affairs Department - University of San Francisco study published in July, 418,000 of the roughly 1.9 million service members who have fought in or supported the wars suffer from PTSD.

 
As of August 2008, the latest data available, about a quarter-million military veterans were imprisoned on any given day-about 9.4 percent of the total daily imprisoned population, according to the National GAINS Center Forum on Combat Veterans, Trauma and the Justice System. There are 223,000 veterans in jail or prison cells on an average day, and an unknown number among the 4 million Americans on probation. They don't have much to look forward to upon release. And if any of these incarcerated vets do not have PTSD when they are arrested, our corrections system will probably rectify the deficiency. Throw in the cocktail of unemployment, powerlessness, depression, alienation, anger, alcohol and drugs and you create thousands, if not tens of thousands, who will seek out violence the way an addict seeks out a bag of heroin." (emphasis mine) All of you, screaming that Maj. Hasan had never been deployed so he couldn't possibly be suffering PTSD, need to re-read the highlighted portion above.  Are we so blinded by his Muslim-ness, or too caught up in that "Real soldiers can't be broken" manliness, or that, "I'm-okay-so-you-must-be-okay" craziness to put two and two together and come up with four?

According to Hedges (and I concur), the answer is a resounding Yes!:

"There is a yawning indifference at home about what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hollow language of heroism and glory, used by the war makers and often aped by those in the media, allows the nation to feel good about war, about "service." But it is also a way of muzzling the voices that attempt to tell us the truth about war. And when these men and women do find the moral courage to speak, they often find that many fellow Americans turn away in disgust or attack them for shattering the myth. The myth of war is too enjoyable, and too profitable, to be punctured by reality. And so these veterans nurse their fantasies of power. They begin to hate those who sent them as much as they hate those they fought. Some cannot distinguish one from the other."  (emphasis mine)

In what little the media did get right about the major, it seems the Army, through the use of a "bad performance review," could have been doing some "muzzling" of it's own while he was stationed at Walter Reed, the facility about which the lack of real treatment and, in some instances, abusive treatment have been copiously reported.  But of course, that's not how it's being spun.

Without even knowing what was in the review, I challenge - any of you - to make some damn sense of what was just said in that video!  If the review was so bad, why didn't it affect Maj. Hasan's promotion and subsequent transfer to Ft. Hood?  Was it a toe-the-line-and-shut-the-hell-up-you-ungrateful-bastard-or-you'll-lose-everything warning (muzzling) to the major?  What was it's purpose??

If he was unable or unwilling to continue to provide poor, or no treatment to his patients after hearing, for the last six or so years, what they had been, and continued to go through, why was he still there?  Even Greta seemed to be sidling up to that question!  Call me stupid, but that twisted logic, along with that pesky Stop-loss policy Congress created, is nothing but a recipe for the disaster that happened at Ft. Hood.

Fort Hood, written on the body,  by Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, is an interesting and prescient piece about the soon to be aired documentary about our "fighting men" - at Ft. Hood, set to begin airing on PBS starting November 8 at 9:30 p.m.:

"Much will be written in the days to come of the mind-set of the alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist who counseled military personnel and was reportedly distressed over his own imminent deployment. Though Schiesari's film predates the horrifying violence at the fort yesterday, it reveals a military culture rarely seen. By following both returning and deployment-bound young soldiers and the stories told on their bodies, she gets under their skin." (emphasis mine)

The trailer alone is, or should be, enlightening:

This is something with which I am intimately familiar.  My youngest was deployed to Iraq for a year as soon as he went into the Army in search of a better life - in his own control - at 21 years old.  Yeah, as young kids increasingly do these days, he had a couple tattoos already (my husband's and my name among a couple others).  But he got this rosary tattoed around his neck during his MOS training before deploying overseas.----->

Because I try, everyday, to live in the light of truth,  I had to ask his permission to tell this part of his story - I thought it only fair.  He gave it.

Since stop-loss was catching so much flack during the time he was in, the Army instead convinced many kids to reenlist while in-country with the lure of "the bonus."  The  son certainly could already see the new car he planned to buy.  But, as soon as they set foot back on U.S.terra firma., he and some of his buddies in his platoon sought out some of that "medication" Hedges talked about above, not realizing that they'd be tested the next day.  The "sting" (for lack of a better word) netted quite a few of them.  But he wanted to stay, and I resolved to help him because the choice was his, not mine.  After a lot of back and forth between me, his female commander and his First Sergeant, in writing and by telephone, it was decided he could. 

But his commander went on maternity leave before he got the official all-clear, replaced by yet another female.  And  he was caught "disobeying a lawful order from a Superior Commissioned Officer" (I shit you not, that is the exact wording in the letter she sent in response to our bullshit congressman's inquiry).  His crime?  He was caught operating a motor vehicle on post after his on-post driving privileges had been suspended - pending determination of a disputed charge levied by the Ft. Bragg police department who had jurisdiction over open roadways leading into, and out of the post.  He was sent home with a General Under Honorable Conditions discharge, and a bill to repay the Army for the bonus he'd received - both of which continue to wreak havoc on his life as he tries to move forward.

Trust me, he understands how he got here from there and beats himself up about it way more than he needs to.

Am I excusing what he did?  Nope.  I'm understanding how he got there.  That being said however, it all changed him - though he continues to swear up-and-down that it didn't.  He's gone from being the sweetest, most compassionate, helpful, loving, grateful kid (I save everything!  He was in middle and high school respectively when he wrote and left these notes for me) - to this angry, often hostile and short with me (and many others), young man, that I rarely recognize a lot of the time.  And it  hurts - deep in my heart.

But like many of us, considered "collateral damage" by the government and the military, we "soldier on" (no pun intented), hoping that eventually, we'll get it right.  We're still soldiering.

Like everybody else, I'm waiting to see what the major has to say about the whys and wherefores.  But unlike most who wait, I wait with discernment.

"13/30" - The Damaged within - Part 1

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39 year-old Army psychiatry resident  - tasked with helping soldiers suffering the debilitating psychiatric effects of having been deployed to a war zone, at both Walter Reed Army Hospital in DC and later at Ft. Hood -  has been identified as the alleged lone perpetrator of the latest incident of violence against U.S. military troops - on U.S. soil.

Will this Democratic POTUS, with his Democratic Congress in the majority, finally take a stand against War?

According to the Army Times piece, "Major named as Fort Hood shooter:" 

Greg Schannep, an aide to Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, told the Austin American-Statesman that he was on the Army post to attend a graduation service. He said that as he neared the entrance of a building where the service was being held, a soldier with blood on his uniform ran past him and said a man was shooting.

Per news reports, this could have been a whole lot worse than it was - seeing as the building directly adjacent to the the graduation service is where the "killing fields" were.

*******************

I've pretty much sworn off watching the "celebrity news" on television - especially CNN!  Once I get caught up in all their s'posed-to-be news, my blood pressure tends to shoot right through the damn roof!  But, raised blood pressure notwithstanding, I watched the coverage of the shooting pretty much non-stop and what I saw unfolding was tragic in more ways than one.

Why is the fact that this happened on U.S. soil so amazing to everyone.  Because Ft. Hood is a closed military post?  Because this was an act of "terrorism," on American soil as CNN and others first tried to imply? Because there has been, according to CNN, a lot of reported "gang activity" on Ft. Hood?  I don't think it's amazing at all, given we've been involved in two wars - of our own making- for the last eight years on someone else's soil.  Anyway you slice it, this has brought the war home in a way that pictures of flag-draped caskets arriving at Dover never could.

I was watching this exchange on Larry King live and thought, "What the Hell!!" This is clearly illustrative of the dichotomy in this country surrounding the discussion of what are now, Obama's wars, that makes this so decidedly "un-amazing" to me:



I know Dr. Phil was the purported "expert" on the panel, but there was no better expert among them than sister, Shoshana Johnson, former Army Specialist and POW (tried to upload a photo of her when she was released from captivity but apparently, due to the upcoming release of her book, all the photos I could find have been copyrighted and I couldn't). 

And yes, I'm so very proud of her for calling former JAG Officer, Tom Kenniff out on his racism, elitism and sheer ignorance (did this guy learn to pronounce terror and terrorism from Shrub or something?).  Props to Dr. Phil for his two cents, but he's never been to war, never been shot in both ankles, never been captured and held for some 22 days.  This sister of Panamanian descent did what has heretofore been taboo in both Black and white society - she stood up, speaking her truth - out loud (and yeah, there was some neck-workin' going on) - to one who can definitely be considered a poster boy for the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.  Good for her, and Blacks/Browns (had to add the "Browns" here.  I don't want any of my people in the diaspora to think I intentionally forgot them.)  in general - but for sisters in particular.

Other military members have died ON POST in this country - at the hands of fellow military members:

- From a July 2009 cbsnews.com piece, Was Navy Sailor Killed For Being Gay?

The 29-year-old Houston native was found dead Tuesday at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. Roy said the family was told that Provost was shot three times, had his hands and feet bound, his mouth gagged, and body burned.

- From an October 2009 hamptonroads.com piece, Family of sailor slain in Newport News seeks court-martial:

In February, in a new apartment complex for Navy sailors, Mackie, a sailor on the amphibious assault ship, Kearsarge, put a gun to the back of Trask's head and pulled the trigger.

- From an October 2008 NY Daily News piece, Army to probe five slayings linked to Colorado Brigade:

Three other members of the unit were accused in the slaying of two soldiers.

- From a July 19 ABC News piece, Reports Clears Army in Gay Soldier's Death:

At Glover’s trial, soldiers testified that Winchell had been relentlessly taunted with anti-gay slurs in the months leading up to his slaying.

- From the 1956 St. Petersburg Times piece Sailor Killed in Race Fight at Naval Base:

A Navy spokesman said the riot broke out Friday night outside the recreation hall at Ford Island, the naval air station in the middle of Pearl Harbor.

And I would certainly be remiss, particularly as a Black Navy veteran, if I didn't list the 1944 Port Chicago Mutiny:

...many black divisions were being bet upon by the whites commanding them.  White officers were wagering whose division could load the most ammunition in the least amount of time. This atmosphere of speed-above-safety put the loaders in further peril.

 Probably the best source I've seen on the type of killing that happened at Ft. Hood,  is Salon's excellent and  in-depth, Coming Home series.  Check it out.  It's definitely worth the read.  Also, here's a short list of Some other military slayings from the Austin-American Statesman.

It just boggles the mind the way people are acting like Ft. Hood is some kind of anomaly, initially blaming it on terrorism, or some possible gang activity.  This is totally irresponsible on the part of what passes for media in this country, particularly because it allows the military, Obama & Co. and the rest of the country to continue burying their heads in the sand regarding what war does to people - deployed or not.