In sex without love,
The female is a toilet,
And the male is excrement.
Truth is not always pretty,
But it is true.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
LOVE LETTERS OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING GO ONLINE - FEBRUARY 14, 2012
Love letters of Barrett, Browning go online
WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) — "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett ..."
So begins the first love letter to 19th century poet Elizabeth Barrett from her future husband, fellow poet Robert Browning.
Their 573 love letters, which capture their courtship, their blossoming love and their forbidden marriage, have long fascinated scholars and poetry fans. Though transcriptions of their correspondence have been published in the past, the handwritten letters could only be seen at Wellesley College, where the collection has been kept since 1930.
But starting Tuesday, Valentine's Day, their famous love letters will become available online where readers can see them — just as they were written — with creased paper, fading ink, quill pen cross outs, and even the envelopes the two poets used.
The digitization project is a collaboration between Wellesley and Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which houses the world's largest collection of books, letters and other items related to the Brownings.
Wellesley administrators hope the project will expose students, romantics, poetry fans and others to their love story.
Barrett, one of the most well-known poets of the Victorian era, suffered from chronic illness and was in her late 30s when Browning first wrote her in 1845 to tell her he admired her work.
In their fifth month of corresponding, they met for the first time, introduced by Barrett's cousin.
After more than a year of almost daily letters between them, the couple married in secret in September 1846, defying her father's prohibition against her ever marrying. They fled from London to Italy, where doctors had told Barrett her health might improve. Her father disinherited her and never spoke to her again.
"It's the fact that she defied her father, she was in ill health, they fell in love through letters, she left with hardly anything," said Ruth Rogers, Wellesley's curator of special collections.
"If you want a perfect romance, just read the letters," she said.
The website set up for readers to see the correspondence includes both the handwritten letters and transcriptions, as well as a zoom function for readers to try to decipher faded or illegible words. The body of letters will also be searchable by keywords.
Readers can see for themselves how they fall in love, while corresponding about other writers, philosophy and their own work. Barrett first wrote the lines of what would become her most famous poem after she met Browning, "How Do I Love Thee? Let me count the ways."
Consider this, from Barrett's letter to Browning on June 4, 1846: "You are too perfect, too overcomingly good & tender — dearest you are, & I have no words with which to answer you."
Or this, from Browning to Barrett, Sept. 18, 1846, shortly before their marriage: "God bless and strengthen you, my ever dearest dearest ... Write to me one word more — depend on me ... "
"She met someone who she could share a seriously important part of her life with," said Sandra Donaldson, an English professor at the University of North Dakota and a recognized scholar of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
"Seeing these things that they touched — even though we are seeing it on the screen — has much the same effect as being able to see and touch the manuscripts," she said.
"When you look at the transcriptions, it's cold, black and white. It's nothing like these letters," she said of the handwritten online manuscripts.
Rogers said one of the most interesting things about the love letters is that Barrett almost left them behind when she and Browning left for Italy.
In her last letter to Browning, dated Sept. 18, 1846, she says she had to take them with her.
"I tried to leave them, & I could not — That is, they would not be left: it was not my fault — I will not be scolded," she wrote.
Henry Durant, who founded Wellesley College in 1870, admired the Brownings and considered Elizabeth Barrett Browning to be an example of a strong, educated woman who would be a good role model for the young women of Wellesley. Durant gave his large personal library to the college, including many first editions by both poets.
Because the college was already known for its Browning room and collection, Robert Browning donated Elizabeth's handwritten poem, "Little Mattie" to the college in 1882.
Former Wellesley President Caroline Hazard purchased the collection of Browning letters, and in 1930, donated them to Wellesley, where they have remained.
The library even has the actual mahogany door to the Barrett house in London, where Browning's letters to Elizabeth passed through a brass letter slot. The slot was screwed shut by a Wellesley librarian more than 40 years ago because students slipped through letters of their own to pay homage to the Brownings. Rogers said she is considering re-opening the slot.
The digitized letters will be made available free online through Baylor's digital collections.
Baylor transformed 1,723 raw digital images from Wellesley into more than 4,200 edited page and envelope images, said Darryl Stuhr, manager of digitization projects for Baylor's electronic library. Baylor also digitized more than 800 other letters written by or to the couple by friends, family and other literary greats of the era.
Stuhr said Baylor needed 107 gigabytes for the love letters alone.
"It is giving worldwide access to the collection, where somebody can actually see what the letters look like without having to travel, from the comfort of their own homes," Stuhr said.
On the Net:
EGYPTIAN PROTESTERS TESTED FOR "VIRGINITY" - A MORAL DILEMMA
A MORAL DILEMMAI long to voice my outrage and to speak out for the Muslim women who are fighting for their freedom in the middle east. But I am a Jewish Christian. What am I to do? If these protesters succeed, they would gladly slaughter my own people. Phyllis Carter Has the revolution betrayed the women of Egypt? | ||||||||
 Hoda Ghaneya, the new Muslim Brotherhood MP for the district of Al-Qalyubiya in the Egyptian Delta, is being mobbed like a pop star. "Well done, Hoda. We know you'll look after us," says a woman passing with her shopping. "Hey look this way," yells the driver of a rickshaw, sounding his horn. "Let me give you a nice joint of meat," calls the butcher.
I am on a constituency walkabout with the MP and the scene unfolding in front of us is one I never thought I would see in Egypt, because Hoda Ghaneya is a woman. Egypt is a country where only men are accepted as natural born leaders. At the height of the Tahrir Square drama when women bravely defied the national stereotype and joined the demonstrations, some men yelled at them "Go back home and feed your babies!" But Mrs Ghaneya, a doctor and mother of four, is accepted and acclaimed. How come you voted for a woman? I ask the butcher. "She has ability and skills and I hope she will work to make us happier and make this country better," he answers. The noise and the commotion is too much for a sensible conversation so Mrs Ghaneya takes me to her home, a modest house in a street just off the main shopping street. "You see," her cousin says to me as we walk, "she actually lives here. The MP who Mubarak sent to represent us only came to visit us twice a year." 'Virginity tests' Others told me how the Muslim Brotherhood looked after them during Hosni Mubarak's 30 years as Egypt's leader. They built hospitals, orphanages and even gave food parcels to the poor - no wonder the party swept parliament in the recent elections. But the Muslim Brotherhood also has a reputation for wanting to keep women at home and for requiring them to wear headscarves. To ask Mrs Ghaneya about making headscarves compulsory appears irrelevant in the Egyptian Delta. Everyone is wearing one. She herself wears a voluminous blue garment that covers everything except her face and hands.
But will she champion women's rights? "People now have equal rights regardless of their colour, sex, race or religion," she replies. "There will be complete rights for all citizens and we will all feel the existence of these rights in the coming period. This is why people voted for us and this is what we promise to deliver, God willing. Inshallah!" She speaks with such genuine sincerity that you want to believe her. But many women in Egypt today are worried. I meet Samira Ibrahim as she leaves the Military Court on the outskirts of Cairo. It was the fifth time she had taken the eight hour bus journey from her home in Upper Egypt to attend a hearing of the case which she has initiated. She is taking the army officer to court who subjected her to a "virginity test" in March 2011 after she was apprehended for joining the protests in Tahrir Square. "Every time I go to court they humiliate me" she says as she leaves the courtroom in tears. "But I won't let them beat me. I'll keep going for as long as it takes until I get justice." No-go zone In the car we share back to the centre of town she tells me her story. She was among a group of women arrested on March 9 2011 and taken to a military prison, beaten and tortured. She says that some of the women died. Those who survived were given a virginity test by a woman military doctor in front of a group of laughing, clapping soldiers.
When the ordeal was over the male military officer in charge made her strip again and carried out a similar assault himself. Samira says she felt "utterly defeated". What message were they trying to give you, I ask? "It was quite simple", Samira replies. "If you take to the streets in the name of the revolution or call for freedom or social justice, we will violate your honour." It appears that the message has got through. When I visited Tahrir Square, there were very few women there. Samira is the only one of some 20 women involved in the incident who has taken the matter to court. None of the other women has returned to the square. Female quota Ironically being an Egyptian woman involved in politics was in many ways easier under the old regime. The former president's wife, Susanne Mubarak, is now reviled, but she was a champion of women's rights. She pushed for reform in the divorce and family laws which were heavily weighted in the man's favour. These reforms are now known as "Susanne's Law" and the fear is that, because it is associated with the old regime, women might lose their recent legal gains.
And while Hoda Ghaneya's party hold a majority in the new parliament, she is a part of a very small minority. There are only nine women MPs in the new parliament, seven elected and two appointed, out of some 508 seats. Under Hosni Mubarak, there was a quota of 64 women MPs, 12% of the old parliament. But that positive discrimination initiative was also promoted by Susanne Mubarak and has been scrapped. Mrs Mubarak did not dare meddle with the presidency and under the old laws a woman could not be president. Now that the constitution which banned women has been suspended, Bothaina Kamel has snuck in her bid as Egypt's first female presidential candidate. Ms Kamel could not be a greater contrast to Mrs Ghaneya. The former TV presenter is elegantly clad in a knee-length, figure hugging dress and has a lot of exposed red hair. She is also in a huge hurry. I sit in the back seat of her car as she dashes from a visit to Tahrir Square, via a debate on the future of Egypt's judicial system at Cairo University, to a meeting with political allies on drawing up the next Egyptian constitution. She emphasises the word next. "A committee for constitutional reforms has been created without the participation of a single woman," she says, adding, "I fear the worst for women's rights". Tourism collapse As she fields two iPhones at once in the front of the car, she explains that she is encouraging other women to participate in politics by standing in the presidential elections, which are due to be held later in the year.
A non-headscarf wearing woman does not stand a chance. And I challenge her on whether last year's parliamentary election results suggest that Egyptian women simply do not vote for women. "The problem is that 30% of women are illiterate in Egypt today," she explains. "They did not understand the process and many were told who to vote for. Besides, all the political alliances have an Islamic bias which is detrimental to the status of women." In the rural areas, women appear content to be represented by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian economy is in a dire state. Tourism has slumped, local authorities cannot pay for rubbish collection and the country is in a mess, literally. Dumps of garbage are left along the sides of the roads and, in one Cairo suburb, piled up into 10 metre (32 feet) high mountains of filth. If the new MPs can introduce a semblance of order to the country, the majority of people will be happy, regardless of the sex of their elected representatives. 'Parallel parliament' In Egypt's second city, Alexandria, a sophisticated city of elegant 19th Century Italianate mansions with a stylish corniche, women do worry about their status in post revolutionary Egypt.
Aida Noureldin, a lawyer and human rights activist, is doing something about it. She invites me to the first meeting of a working party she has called together to form an alternative parliament. She calls it the "Parallel Parliament". "Women were just used as voting blocs in these last elections and we do not have any women MPs from Alexandria in the new parliament and so we decided to create a parallel parliament which will be made up of a majority of women with a few men and young people. "We'll share the responsibility of decision making with the official parliament and we'll monitor what goes on there," she says. At the meeting it was a lady in full niqab who dared ask the obvious: "Who is going to listen to us?" She has a point. Ms Noureldin looks flustered and replies that at least it will be good practice for the future. "We shall be in a better position to fight the elections next time round," she says. "Next time", "It will take time" and "Inshallah" were words I heard a lot from the women of Egypt. So many had hope vested in the revolution, but they are prepared to wait. Even Samira Ibrahim who was brutally beaten, tortured and sexually abused after she was dragged from Tahrir Square by soldiers says the battle is not lost. "The reason why women and female revolutionaries were not elected and were even punished for their stand," she says "is because the revolution has not run its full course yet. The revolution is still ongoing." Sue Lloyd-Roberts film on women's rights in the new Egypt, the first in a week of films examining the Arab Spring one year on, is on Newsnight on Monday 13 February 2012 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, and will be available to watch online afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website. | ||||||||
The reason why women and female revolutionaries were not elected and were even punished for their stand is because the revolution has not run its full course yet. The revolution is still ongoing 
EGYPTIAN LAWYER PROPOSES ARAB MEN SHOULD SEXUALLY MOLEST GIRLS
I am not able to copy video or to verify the authenticity of this report, but it is so important that I offer it here with the link so that the reader may verify it.
Monday, February 13, 2012
RECOVERY VILLAGE WOULD SAVE LIVES, CHILDREN, MONEY AND OUR SELF RESPECT
When the Montreal Forum closed in 1996, The Montreal Gazette published my Letter to the Editor in which I encouraged the City of Montreal to convert the Forum building into a Recovery Centre for the many street people who waste their lives lying on park benches and in alleys in all kinds of weather - dirty, drunk, smoking, drugged, annoying passersby and throwing away their lives.
In my letter, I proposed that the Forum Centre provide basic accommodations including clean cots, showers, simple healthy meals, basic medical and psychological care and triage, counsellors to evaluate the guests, information, guidance and referrals to reasonable housing, health care services, adult education, and retraining programs for jobs.
My plan was ignored.
So, all these decades later, nothing has changed. The streets of Montreal are still littered with stinking, wasting lives.
Again, I propose a Recovery Village.
If we can have huge shopping malls full of extravagant clothing and electronic gadgets and killer foods for the well-to-do, why can't we create a centre to save lives, protect tourism, save money, save the police from wasting time, energy and even their lives chasing after drug addicts and violent offenders, protect children from perverts and drug dealers, fill jobs, cut welfare benefits, cut health costs due to violence. There are probably more benefits that would accrue from taking the derelicts off the street, triaging to place each individual in his or her appropriate place, and making people who can be helped productive again.
Years ago, when the MacDonalds closed at the corner of Walkley and Cote St. Luc in NDG, the local newspaper, The Monitor, published my Letter to the Editor in which I suggested that the restaurant building be converted to a much-needed community centre. The letter was published but there was silence.
Just a few short months later, the mayor of Montreal created a big PR show by turning the MacDonalds into a community centre. As the cameras flashed at him in front of the MacDonalds building, I handed him a copy of my Letter to the Editor which he quickly pocketed.
I know what I am talking about. I have been widowed, seriously ill, unemployed, a crime victim, homeless and destitute. Here is a piece I wrote during one of my darkest times:
A NIGHT IN SHELTER THREE
By
Phyllis Mass Carter
1993
1993
From the Journal of an Incurable Job Hunter
Curriculum Vitae
Phyllis Mass Carter - Canadian. Widow
Professional Journalist/Editorialist/ Reporter/Lyricist
Professional Private Investigator
Public Speaker/Coach/Speech writer
Professional Photographer
Executive Assistant
Formerly Comfortable Montreal West Island Suburbanite
Unemployed due to being "Overqualified" and "Anglo"
Professional Journalist/Editorialist/ Reporter/Lyricist
Professional Private Investigator
Public Speaker/Coach/Speech writer
Professional Photographer
Executive Assistant
Formerly Comfortable Montreal West Island Suburbanite
Unemployed due to being "Overqualified" and "Anglo"
In Montreal, Quebec -
And due to "The Recession."
And due to "The Recession."
A NIGHT IN SHELTER THREE - HULL, QUEBEC - SUMMER, 1993
Here, after midnight,
Strangers keep coughing in the dark;
I hear syncopated snoring in the dark;
A peculiar girl is laughing in her sleep;
An old man with a shaggy beard weeps.
A strapping fellow with solid biceps
And wild eyes
Mills about in his undershirt,
Cursing much and mightily
At no one in particular.
A distraught spinster leaps from her cot,
Quoting scripture and raving -
"The Lord will see you all in Hell for this !"
And here am I,
In the midst of this congregation
Of derelicts, alcoholics and drug addicts.
I feel separate - out of place - disassociated,
And small,
And scared -
And I keep very still.
Wrapped in a blanket,
Afraid to lie down,
I sit curled up tight
In a worn upholstered chair,
Behind rows of discarded chesterfields
That reek of stale tobacco,
And the pungent perspiration
Of the tormented and the dispossessed.
(Earlier, I noticed someone had written
"WORMS" on the lunch menu.)
My few possessions are in Locker 33 -
Safe -
Perhaps:
But the Keeper keeps the key,
And the Keeper is a stranger
To me.
I keep my eye on 33
Through the smokey blackness.
1:15 A.M.
I watch the silhouette of
The wild-eyed one with the biceps,
As he paces erratically in the dark,
Growling his angry epithets -
Stringing them out -
Like long lines of dirty laundry.
(I never realized there were so many
Obscene words in the French language.)
The acrid odors blend together -
An environmental hazard -
A filthy fog
That envelopes me and invades my senses.
I NEED AIR !
2:20 A.M.
Suddenly someone switches on the T.V.
A sharp blast of Fifes and Drums
Stuns me with Sousa !
4:05 A.M.
Weary,
I drift into my memory,
Seeking the sweet solace
Of my precious husband's arms.
I won't cry. I will NOT !
But closed eyelids can't filter out
The putrid stench of wasting human lives.
Where is the dawn ?
30
Copyright Phyllis Mass Carter - Ottawa - May, 1993 - All rights reserved by the author.
I wrote this piece in May, 1993. I asked, "Where is the dawn?"
I could not have foreseen that, on October 7, 1996, widowed and sick with cancer, I would be robbed of everything I worked for all my life by Dawn McSweeney and see my family and my health destroyed with the help of the Montreal Police.
I called this piece Shelter Three because it was the third shelter I had stayed in while struggling to find work. This was one year after my darling husband died and just weeks before I fell ill with cancer.
PHYLLIS CARTER'S JOURNAL http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2012/01/observations-in-shelter-three_23.html
Sunday, February 12, 2012
IF THIS BE MADNESS, THEN CALL IT MADNESS - EXAMPLES FROM OUR COURTS
I must advise you that I have not verified the authenticity of this report, but it's worth a look and, if in doubt, the reader can check SNOPES.
It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'!
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know the kind of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy
Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2011
*SEVENTH PLACE*
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2011
*SEVENTH PLACE*
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
Start scratching!
* SIXTH PLACE *
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Scratch some more...
* FIFTH PLACE *
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are more...
Double hand scratching after this one..
*FOURTH PLACE*
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE *
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Only two more so ease up on the scratching...
*SECOND PLACE*
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
Ok. Here we go!! Drum roll ...
* FIRST PLACE *
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owners manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
* FIFTH PLACE *
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are more...
Double hand scratching after this one..
*FOURTH PLACE*
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..
* THIRD PLACE *
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Only two more so ease up on the scratching...
*SECOND PLACE*
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
Ok. Here we go!! Drum roll ...
* FIRST PLACE *
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owners manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
THE LAW IS AN ASS - HOW CAN I BREAK THE LAW AND BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR HELP ?
" THE LAW IS AN ASS "
THE PEOPLE HAVE TO ACT
It is clear that crime victims in Montreal, Quebec, Canada cannot depend on police, politicians, lawyers or even judges to protect our rights.
The Montreal Police have told me that crime victims have no rights. Only "the accused" have rights. Criminals have rights. Crime victims do not.
Everyone tells me that a crime victim has to hire a lawyer. In other words, you have to go to civil court and you have to be a rich crime victim to pay for it. That becomes even more problematic when everything that belongs to you has been stolen.
Furthermore, even if you could hire a lawyer and go to civil court and live long enough for the case to be heard and judged, you could only get money from the criminals who, in this case, have stolen everything of value from me and from my family - all our jewellery, my parents' home and all of my fathers life's savings.
You could not recover your most precious personal belongings or the many years stolen from your family, or your reputation - or your health. It will not cure my cancer brought on by these years of anguish.
You could not bring your parents back from the dead and prove to them what the thief did so they would understand what really happened before returning to their graves.
If you are not in love with money, but only with justice, civil court is useless.
In order to obtain the protection and benefits of Canadian law,
we must break the law.
At least then we become entitled to all the rights and perks of criminals.
Unfortunately, I cannot think of any way I could break the law without harming anyone. Even shattering someone's store window would risk someone being hurt. It would be noisy and messy and very upsetting. And innocent victims would be harmed. And then Dawn McSweeney and her "partners in crime" would have real ammunition to accuse me - once again - of being insane and dangerous. Catch 22.
So I'm thinking about it. When you have fought for justice peacefully and politely day and night for fifteen years and justice is still being denied, you have to consider alternate plans.
Remember, I am 75 years old and a cancer patient, so I can't do anything really dramatic. But I'm thinking about it.
Any suggestions ?
Phyllis Carter
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