Culture vs Compassion

I want to share this article from the Arizona Republic with you because it is a good example of behavior that is excused by culture. When we learn about behavior or abuse in another country, it makes us feel uncomfortable, but becomes easy to dismiss as "their cultural." (i.e. female genital mutilation) Therein lies the perennial questions about moral subjectivism, and yet we can say that WE would never do such a thing. Why is that? Perhaps because as an ever evolving human race, our cultural pocket in this world is one that constantly corrects itself through strong voices and actions of people, like Peggy Bilsten, who know that culture makes no difference. Abuse is abuse is abuse. In the case of this little girl's parents, I'll never understand how cultural belief can supercede the protection and love for their own a child.

Support offered for 8-year-old victim of sex assault

Families want to adopt girl, 8, make donations

by Michael Ferraresi - Jul. 25, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Peggy Bilsten returned home from a month-long humanitarian trip to help rape victims in Africa to learn of a similar victim in Phoenix. Like the victims she met in Africa, this one "survived hell," she said.

The former Phoenix city councilwoman offered to adopt the 8-year-old Liberian refugee who police said was held down and raped by a group of neighborhood boys at a Maryvale apartment complex.

The victim landed in the care of Arizona Child Protective Services after her father made statements to authorities that he no longer wanted her in the home because she brought shame to the family. The story triggered an outpouring of support from families willing to adopt the girl, help her recover or simply to donate clothing and toys to ease her transition into foster care.

The attack also prompted the president of war-torn Liberia to issue a statement Friday about the Phoenix case, stating that the country was trying to mend its issues with sexual violence.

Bilsten traveled last month to Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo with the Christian missionary group Mending the Soul.

"It's important we don't excuse this as culture," she said. "This was the result of evil, not culture."

The four boys - ages 14, 13, 10 and 9 - face criminal charges in connection to the July 16 incident in which police said they lured the girl into a shed with chewing gum, held her down, and raped her.

Citing department policy, CPS officials declined to answer questions about the victim, although they said the girl was safely recovering in foster care.

The agency is conducting its own investigation, working with the victim's family to determine whether their home could eventually be deemed safe. Officials said each CPS case is treated on an individual basis.

Steven Tuopeh, 14, will be prosecuted as an adult on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Prosecutors have two weeks to decide to petition Maricopa County Superior Court to transfer any of the boys' juvenile cases to adult court.

Officers arrested the boys at their homes Tuesday, five days after neighbors at the west Phoenix apartment complex called police after the girl ran screaming and partially clothed from the shed where the attack occurred.

Investigators said the boys held the girl down inside the shed and took turns sexually assaulting her for nearly 15 minutes.

Police said the victim knew her attackers, but they were not sure how long the families lived in the complex or how long it had been since they fled Liberia. Three of the boys lived with their families at the complex.

Investigators were unclear on the suspects' personal backgrounds, based on their refugee status.

Detectives focused on the July 16 incident during interviews with the boys, police Sgt. Andy Hill said. They conducted the interviews with their families' consent.

Hill added that the boys' experiences in Liberia never came up in interviews.

"Nothing in the interviews really (brought up) anything from the past," he said. "You need to be careful in your interviews (with child suspects). You can't try to lead or coerce or anything."

Hill said the emotional outpouring from the public was the most significant for a child victim he has seen in nearly 25 years.

Abuse Is Not An Event; It's A Process.

It's not often that we get lucky enough to have someone in a power position take notice and become active in the domestic abuse movement. Fortunately, we have an advocate for proactive change in Judge Toler.

You may have seen her on Divorce Court, one of the most successful real-life drama television shows on KSAZ (Phoenix, AZ). She has worked with thousands of cases in domestic violence, stalking, assault, and stalking. After seeing her speak at the Women's Luncheon at the George Washington Carver Museum in June, it was easy to see why her show is so successful. Not only is she beautiful, she is funny, intelligent and really cares about working towards stemming the flow of violence and abuse rather than reacting to it.

Several key points from her speech were surprising, even to me. One may think that a DV case even making it to court is a win because it's rare and the abuser may finally have to be accountable for his/her actions; however, according to Judge Toler, "it's little too late." In a culture that pulls off a few leaves on issues rather than hacking at the roots of the trees, she understands from experience that abuse is a community problem and it develops as a process rather than just an event.

My previous post on Why Domestic Violence: if not you, then who? demonstrates more graphically the same message. People don't go into a relationship thinking or knowing they will be abused, but they still have to take responsibility for that first step to get out. That initial step is what frustrates people. Why doesn't she leave being the most common question, but they don't realize that leaving is the most dangerous time for a victim and usually the very act happening when we read about a homicide/murder/suicide case in the newspapers. A key to prevention of these media stories repeating themselves is that a "community provides a means of exit that is safe," according to Toler. Again we go back to awareness, education, then action.

Anyone can become an advocate in very small ways by first learning more about the issue of abuse, especially if one knows a person in the situation. Then by giving her a phone number for help and telling her that she deserves better. Keep this number with you in your wallet or purse and present it when she is alone. Most of all listen to her and don't judge. You will be amazed at how this small and free gesture could save her life and many others after her. You can be a hero.


Domestic Violence: if not you, then who?
Divorce Court
Toler on NPR

Why Domestic Violence--If not you then who?

A person close to me asked why choose domestic violence as the platform for the art I create and the charity work I promote with Bravery Project. Her understanding was that there are many causes out there which are just as important, such as serious health issues. Producing art will not stop some jerk from beating on this wife...she still made choices. Those with health issues, like cancer and congenital deformities, did not choose their fate. After a deep breath, this inquiry became an important opportunity to teach.

There have been individuals who have asked for art to help other causes via Bravery Project, and it was seriously considered. Although there are many important causes in our communities, let alone the world, domestic abuse is one such cause that produces some very interesting challenges. We are talking about human nature and an omnipresent social disease that is highly misunderstood, misrepresented, and underserved.

To be clear, Bravery Project, is about education and awareness of WHAT, WHO, and HOW domestic abuse happens. We can't force abusers to stop abusing and victims to leave, but we can encourage people to think differently about this issue. Instead of seeing the abuse as a private problem and acceptable in some cases, we prove time and again that it's a common and expensive community issue. The vast numbers of survivors who have shared their stories (portrait or not) prove that ignorance prevails. When people see the faces and read the stories from the survivor's own words, they learn something new. What they learn encourages them to have open discussion, listen to someone in need, provide a number for a victim, step in when they see that child being hit by a parent, report negligence at a nursing home. In otherwords, have compassion and take action.

In the past 11 days, 8 domestic violence deaths have been reported just in Maricopa County--two of them were children. Were they preventable? Possibly. Suppose the neighbors heard or suspected something and reported possible child abuse....would those children still be alive? What if a friend or acquaintance, gave the woman a number to call and told her she deserves better, would she still be alive?

If people shake their heads at a victim and think she made the choice to marry him, they must expect that she saw the signs and consciously decided, "Hey, in about two years, this guy will break my ribs, scar my face, and put me into the hospital...I think I will marry him and have his children so he can use and abuse them too." Obviously, we know this isn't reality, but turning our backs on victims as "they asked for it...they choose it" is saying exactly that.

Taking out personal responsibility from the health realm is dubious at best. Although scientists have detected a breast cancer gene, that doesn't excuse a person's lifestyle from encouraging the cancer to develop. The best way to reduce cancer incidences is to educate the population about good lifestyle habits. This is no different when it comes to domestic violence and abuse. People must be educated on what it means and what to do, whether it's to get help or to help someone else. We understand that she couldn't possibly know he will cause her to miscarriage in 12 months because he will beat her belly...any more than we can expect the neighbors who hear his rage and her cries to know the best way to handle a "domestic disturbance." We must allieviate this fear of stepping out and sharing stories and stepping out to help another through education. The Bravery Project way is to give a voice to survivors so THEY can teach from their own experiences.

This is just one of the things that Bravery Project does and with collaboration in the community, we will do together.

Marcia J. Powell vs A Broken System

I am passing along this email message from Stella Pope Duarte, author of If I Die in Juarez, and an article by the Arizona Republic, "Tragic Cage Death Ends Woeful Life", written by E.J. Montini. There is little to add here; however, we need to remember that prostitution is usually connected to domestic and sexual violence and is also an ignored community issue as you will read. Unfortunately, we go back to the question of how to get people to care, get involved, and get those who fall into prostitution out. Like domestic violence/abuse, victims still have to make that decision and take that step (human trafficking is another story), but they must have someone light their way.


From: Stella Pope Duarte Date: May 24, 2009 11:20:36 AM MST Subject: Marcia J. Powell

Dear Friends,
E. J. Montini's article in todays Sunday Republic, May 24, 2009, said everything I had wanted to say, and he didn't miss a beat..it was eloquently written. Marcia J. Powell's death in an outdoor cage at Perryville should have everyone in Arizona outraged. For over three years I investigated the murders of over 500 young women in Ciudad Juárez, and now I see the same heinous crimes being committed here in Phoenix. This latest TRAGIC death of a woman who ran away from home at the age of 15, and God knows what her life had been at home...diagnosed as mentally ill, locked up at Perryville State Prison for two years for prostitution, ignored and degraded by society, now brings new attention to the ABSOLUTE violation of human rights being committed in Arizona. May we all turn briefly in our own busy lives to say a prayer for Marica and for all those caught in the grip of an UNJUST, and CRUEL correctional system. May we have the courage to move forward in defense of all those who have no voice, but ours.
love to all,
Stella Pope Duarte

(The cage she died in with a populated
control room 20 feet away.)

Montini's Columns & Blog 'Ancora imparo'

Tragic Cage Death Ends Woeful Life

Marcia J. Powell, a mentally ill prostitute and drug addict, died like a dog last week, roasting in a cage in the fearsome sun at the state prison at Perryville.

She was 48 years old.

Her final tortured hours in an outdoor enclosure last Tuesday mimicked those of a 5-year-old law-enforcement canine named Rik that died at Perryville in 2007 after having been left by handlers in an exercise run for three hours. Temperatures that day reached 105.

The temperature in Powell's cage last week exceeded 107. She was locked up for an hour longer than the dog before she collapsed.

There are many questions to be answered by the Department of Corrections about Powell's final hours. But her death is only the gruesome exclamation point on a long list of institutional failures that got her there.

DOC officials say that Powell had a rap sheet going back decades and included at least 10 sex and six drug convictions. She'd been in and out of Arizona prisons since 1994.

Records indicate that she left home in California at 15 with a ninth grade education, no marketable skills and a serious mental illness. A pre-sentencing report describes her as bipolar.

Last summer she was sent to prison for just over two years on a prostitution charge.

“It's awful the way this woman died,” said Donna Leone Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform Inc., which for years has advocated for Arizona inmates and their families. “No one cared much about her when she lived. I hope at least that we care about the way she died.”

DOC is investigating the incident. Several employees already are on administrative leave.

After Powell collapsed she was taken to the hospital and placed on life support. A spokesman for DOC told me that the department was unable to locate any family members. So when the time came to decide whether or not to pull the plug on the machines keeping her alive, it fell to prisons director Charles Ryan. Powell was taken off life support at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday and died at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday.

“The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure,” Ryan said later. “The investigation will determine whether there was negligence and tell us how to remedy our failures.”

I'm not so sure.

For one thing, DOC should not be conducting the investigation. It should fall to an outside agency. The governor should demand it.

According to Middle Ground's Donna Hamm, she contacted then prisons director Dora Schriro in late 2007 about the practice of placing prisoners in outdoor cages.

“Because no one had died or had been permanently injured I couldn't get anyone – including the press – interested,” Hamm said.

Questions like that are only a beginning.

Powell's horrific death and her woeful life should finally get us to ask why Arizona's failed mental health system transforms county jails and prisons into mental health institutions.

It should get us to ask why we criminalize people like this but don't adequately treat them, since it's clear that taxpayers end up footing the bill for their care one way or another.

Powell told state officials that she had two children who were given up to foster care, but DOC says the state has no record of that. Police also checked the address of a name she'd listed as a friend on prison records but found no one living in the abandoned house.

In spite of spending years in the system, Powell's life remains a mystery. Her death is a tragedy, although perhaps not on the level of Rik the law-enforcement dog.

There was a large public outpouring for him.

(Column for May 24, 2009, Arizona Republic)



Stella Pope Duarte
E.J. Montini Article
The Real Cost of Prison's Weblog
Channel 15 Coverage on Powell's Death

Charities and Donations

Recently, the Arizona Republic wrote a four-day series on twenty-two charities and where their money goes as a warning to all of us. In light of the new reduction of charitable tax benefits for those who make more than 250K a year, this is a blow to the efforts of fundraising and much deserved exposure of those who take advantage of the system.

Over the past couple of years, it's become clear that charity is big money and big business. The tax exemption status is an honor system put forth by the IRS because they do not have the means to audit the 1.8 million charities under their exemption umbrella. This may change, however, due to organizations that abuse that honor system.

There are two questions that have always come to mind while working in the nonprofit sector:

1. With so much money and inkind donations floating around, why is there still so much need? Why aren't issues being resolved?

2. Where does all this money go?

The first question is loaded. Issues exist, i.e. hunger, homelessness, abuse are alive because of human nature and they require more than one answer; however, it's the output of aid to those in need in comparison to the input of funds and gifts meant to feed, house, shelter, etc. that is in question. For example, the article from the Arizona Republic, "Following the Donations", shows that 8,884 pounds of medicine sat in a warehouse in the US and Canada, while the website claimed it was sent to the Philippines and Guatemala. By the end of the convoluted journey of this medicine, after being passed around on paper to several related charities in the US, it finally ended up in one faith based mission in Guatemala and one in the Philippines. The website claimed it got dispersed to clinics in the Philippines and hospitals throughout Guatemala. Makes one wonder how many instances like this happen when the public is told one thing and the charity does another.

The second question is quite easy to answer. People forget that nonprofits are still businesses. Nonprofit workers are either volunteers or they are paid staff. People who start, build and manage nonprofits full time, need to be compensated fairly. Unfortunately, as most business owners know, salaries are typically the biggest overhead. Be wary of large organizations that claim a very small percentage of money goes to salary. According to the Arizona Republic, "charities spend most on their own salaries, expenses." This is especially true with middle charities who take money and then disperse to other charities rather than donors giving the money directly to the cause they want to support.

In any nonprofit organization, there are still expenses in travel, supplies, monthly services that need to be addressed. The misperception that because you are a nonprofit, you should do and get everything for free is just not reality because it is still a business. Unfortunately, some nonprofits pay six and seven-figure salaries to their employees and take some pretty hefty sums for perks and bonuses. To get to that level, the nonprofit is mostly likely quite large and receiving tens of thousands if not millions a year.

There are many reasons why the issues of hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, etc. are unresolved, but very little excuse as to why the numbers are continuing to climb when there are so many generous people pouring funds into the nonprofit sector, expecting to bring about change. When you give to a charity, not only research their financials, but think HARD about whether you want to donate to a middle charity or to directly to the organization in need. The middle charity is not there to stem the flow of hunger or child abuse, they are there to collect money for other charities and they are not doing it as volunteers.

This type of nonprofit, such as the Combined Federal Campaign, is supposed to stem the flow of donation requests made to Federal government employees and to large billion dollar corporations. There is little if any oversight into fund disbursement by the CFC and it's very unlikely that they work as volunteers, which means a chunk of those millions are going to salaries, not to child abuse and education for the poor. Furthermore, if a middle charity claims they are watchdogs in ensuring transparency and accountability of money investments on behalf of donors, this is really unnecessary duplication because the organizations who apply for these middle charity networks already have to prove transparency. In other words, you as the donor can go directly to that charity who got the money and see the very same thing that you could from the middle charity and save millions of dollars that would otherwise go to services.

Arizona Republic: Perfectly Legal (Four day investigative report) If these links expire, please notify me and I will post them as pdf.

Excellent response to the AZ Republic article with some valuable links

CEO Salary comparison by Charity Navigator (They tell you to consider the size of the charity and the charity budget...ideally the larger the budget, the more help to people/animals rather than the higher the salary, but that isn't reality.)