Friday, August 24, 2012
HATEFUL MESSAGES ADD TO SORROW
HATEFUL MESSAGES ADD TO SORROW
Three children die - and some readers' depraved responses to the tragedy create an evil all their own
by ANDREW MALEKOFF* (originally published on March 3, 2008)
I made a disturbing discovery the Sunday afternoon of Feb. 24 when the murder of three innocent children, the youngest named Innocent, allegedly at the hands of their profoundly troubled mother, was first
reported on Newsday's Web site. Few details were available at the time.
The headline on the Web site read: "Sources: Mom Kills Three Kids in New Cassel." My stomach dropped. I couldn't recall a story quite like this since I moved to Long Island in the late 1970s.
When I scrolled to the end of the story, there was a place to click to "Read all 40 comments." This link, which appears in many online stories in Newsday and other newspapers, takes you to a "Forum," a place for the public to comment.
I clicked into the forum, and amid readers' expressions of shock, dismay, sadness and sympathy, I found a significant stream of depravity. The forum, for the most part, consists of anonymous writers who tag their reflections with a range of nicknames. Here is a sample, exactly as the notes appeared:
Typical wrote: "The savages at it again ... "
The Pusher wrote: "New Cassel should be nuked."
Shoot Me Twice wrote: "The kids didn't put on a convincing performance at the Department of Social Services for mommy to get more free goodies. Maybe Tom Suozzi can use them as extra help at his mansion on the North Shore."
Senseless wrote: "Where O Where could my Daddy be? In jail most probably . . . planning to get out and commit the next robbery."
Booker wrote: ". . . These are unstable people with weak genes, she did society a favor. Animals kill their young when they know they are too weak to make a go of it, why are we so different?"
Comments like these continued throughout the week. On Feb. 27 someone identifying himself as Bruce wrote of the murdered children: "three less drains on society. good riddance."
Sprinkled in were a number of counter-responses like this one by Disgusted, I am sickened by this sad story and sickened again by all of these disgusting comments ... it's really pathetic that some of you have nothing to do but spew hatred."
Sometimes one response would specifically engage another. Right after the children's funerals, I found: Tookie (Huntington Station): "da lil nappi headed **** are in heaven now!"
To which SadSadness AOL responded: ". . . heartless cold person, 3 innocent children were killed regardless of race. If your not feeling sad over this your an evil person. those children did nothing wrong and def did not deserve that, May they Rest in peace respectfully."
It's one of the great benefits of the Internet to offer instant access to news, along with a chance for the audience to instantly share comments about it. But in this situation, even with certain incendiary remarks slapped right down, this seemed like a mixed blessing.
Newsday, like many media sites, has guidelines to try to keep the online conversation civil and constructive. Yet, after reading messages on the murder of three small children, I am discovering feelings of sorrow that I did not think I would ever experience for the mother who is alleged to have carried out the horror of all horrors, killing her own. Strangely, and I am sure unforgivably to some, I find myself feeling more of a human connection to Leatrice Brewer than to Typical, The Pusher, Booker, Shoot Me Twice, Senseless and their gang.
*Andrew Malekoff is executive director of the North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
Newsday link to article: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/hateful-messages-add-to-sorrow-1.597624
Sunday, August 5, 2012
SAVE OUR SERVICES
SAVE OUR SERVICES
The Olympic games in London have inspired us with the fetes of 15-year-old swimming sensation Katie Ledecky and the diminutive dynamo of gymnastics, 17-year-old Gaby Douglas. At the same time, in Nassau County, there is a game of political cat-and-mouse being played by our elected officials who have put tens of thousands of vulnerable young people in the legislative crosshairs.
The July 6th funding cuts to essential human services provide a chilling insight into the insidious nature of Nassau County politics. The Democratic minority on the Nassau County Legislature chose not to authorize $41 million in borrowing for tax refunds. Republicans claim that the democrats are withholding their votes as a ploy to get new election districts redrawn. Democrats state that the funding cut is a policy decision by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
In an attempt to draw wider attention about the impact of the budget cuts, STRONG Youth, Inc., a gang-prevention program in Hempstead that lost all of its county funding, staged a symbolic funeral for youth services at the Hempstead Pentecostal Church on August 2nd. I attended the funeral and participated in the processional motorcade led by two hearses that traveled past the legislative building in Mineola and concluded in a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court.
Some critics accused STRONG of being too extreme. Others called the symbolic funeral disrespectful of the dead. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The funeral, procession and press conference were impeccably organized in less than a week by STRONG social workers and volunteers, young and old, who galvanized a complex network of children, teenagers, parents (including parents of murdered children), crime victims, clergy, colleagues, community leaders and local businesses.
The only thing extreme about the “funeral” was in the exceptional orchestration and staging of an event aimed at exposing the gap between what we know and what we are told by government officials. The skills used to organize this event are the same ones that are used by professional social workers to develop and implement an exemplary gang prevention program that aims to engage young people to become successful students and active citizens in community affairs. Nassau County should not be eliminating programs like STRONG, they should be celebrating and promoting it as a best practice in gang prevention.
One of the speakers at the press conference was a young woman, Amory Sepúlveda, who testified, “When I was 19-years-old I was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting that resulted in [my] never being able to walk again. I was hurt physically, emotionally and thought my life was over. With the help of county youth services I am now a college graduate in pursuit of a master’s degree [in social work]. I’ve shared my story, changing the lives of thousands of youth in Nassau County.”
The shame of Nassau County and its loss of humanity are evident in our elected representatives’ failure to value, respect, uplift, defend and safeguard all of the County's children when having the power to do so. Our elected officials have demonstrated, notwithstanding their ever-present availability for photo ops designed to depict a contrary impression, that they have little respect for our most vulnerable citizens.
When our elected representatives implement politically-motivated cost cutting they miss the human toll and they miss the fiscal consequences of their decisions. Our elected representatives miss that they are cutting cost-effective services that keep people out of jail, emergency rooms and costly psychiatric institutions.
During harsh economic times when all of our best efforts are needed to preserve families and save lives, the recent cuts to human services will not only destroy families but increase the long term burden to the taxpayer. And, it will bear an even greater cost in lives lost, kids plucked from their homes and families splintered and destroyed.
Andrew Malekoff, Long Beach
The author is executive director of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
The Olympic games in London have inspired us with the fetes of 15-year-old swimming sensation Katie Ledecky and the diminutive dynamo of gymnastics, 17-year-old Gaby Douglas. At the same time, in Nassau County, there is a game of political cat-and-mouse being played by our elected officials who have put tens of thousands of vulnerable young people in the legislative crosshairs.
The July 6th funding cuts to essential human services provide a chilling insight into the insidious nature of Nassau County politics. The Democratic minority on the Nassau County Legislature chose not to authorize $41 million in borrowing for tax refunds. Republicans claim that the democrats are withholding their votes as a ploy to get new election districts redrawn. Democrats state that the funding cut is a policy decision by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.
In an attempt to draw wider attention about the impact of the budget cuts, STRONG Youth, Inc., a gang-prevention program in Hempstead that lost all of its county funding, staged a symbolic funeral for youth services at the Hempstead Pentecostal Church on August 2nd. I attended the funeral and participated in the processional motorcade led by two hearses that traveled past the legislative building in Mineola and concluded in a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court.
Some critics accused STRONG of being too extreme. Others called the symbolic funeral disrespectful of the dead. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The funeral, procession and press conference were impeccably organized in less than a week by STRONG social workers and volunteers, young and old, who galvanized a complex network of children, teenagers, parents (including parents of murdered children), crime victims, clergy, colleagues, community leaders and local businesses.
The only thing extreme about the “funeral” was in the exceptional orchestration and staging of an event aimed at exposing the gap between what we know and what we are told by government officials. The skills used to organize this event are the same ones that are used by professional social workers to develop and implement an exemplary gang prevention program that aims to engage young people to become successful students and active citizens in community affairs. Nassau County should not be eliminating programs like STRONG, they should be celebrating and promoting it as a best practice in gang prevention.
One of the speakers at the press conference was a young woman, Amory Sepúlveda, who testified, “When I was 19-years-old I was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting that resulted in [my] never being able to walk again. I was hurt physically, emotionally and thought my life was over. With the help of county youth services I am now a college graduate in pursuit of a master’s degree [in social work]. I’ve shared my story, changing the lives of thousands of youth in Nassau County.”
The shame of Nassau County and its loss of humanity are evident in our elected representatives’ failure to value, respect, uplift, defend and safeguard all of the County's children when having the power to do so. Our elected officials have demonstrated, notwithstanding their ever-present availability for photo ops designed to depict a contrary impression, that they have little respect for our most vulnerable citizens.
When our elected representatives implement politically-motivated cost cutting they miss the human toll and they miss the fiscal consequences of their decisions. Our elected representatives miss that they are cutting cost-effective services that keep people out of jail, emergency rooms and costly psychiatric institutions.
During harsh economic times when all of our best efforts are needed to preserve families and save lives, the recent cuts to human services will not only destroy families but increase the long term burden to the taxpayer. And, it will bear an even greater cost in lives lost, kids plucked from their homes and families splintered and destroyed.
Andrew Malekoff, Long Beach
The author is executive director of North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
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